I can jump puddles

Yesterday a cool change came over Melbourne after two days of 35 degrees.

We had a huge thunderstorm roll through just as I was finishing work at 2pm.

We normally get a few firecalls during and after storms. Car accidents due to the changing road conditions and fire alarms being set off by a flickering power supply. I sat the storm out at the Fire Station waiting for a call but luckily there wasn't any.

The family and I were going to a friends place in the evening so when the storm cleared I headed home. I had ran to their place before on New Years Day and decided it would be great to do it again.

Oscar and I set off racing the family in the car. They passed us after 5 minutes just as we left the estate. With cheers of "Go Dad!" ringing in my ears I set out to beat my previous time of 32:30 minutes.

It is a mostly concrete footpath with around 2km of sandy trail. The sand surface was very wet and I could feel the mud flicking on my legs. With the splashing in some puddles and jumping over the bigger ones it was a very fun session.

On arriving at our destination We found we had stripped over three minutes of our previous time completing the 6km one way trip in 28:50 minutes. A thrilling result after having a couple lazy days.

Last Friday I registered my entry for the Run for the Kids. $20 of the $25 entry fee is a donation to the Children's Hospital and even tax deductible. My wife is going to be walking the 4.5km with a few friends so I entered her registration as well. Good luck Sal!

I need time to run (sleep, work)

As I mentioned earlier, this week I have been working day/morning shift.

I normally do all afternoons and the change of hours has knocked my routine around a bit.

I usually do my running from 7 to 8am, 9 to 10am or in the late evening. But this week I find that in those times I have been working, sleeping or in today's case, too bloody hot!

Today in Melbourne it has reached 35 degrees. Way too hot for me to run especially feeling as weary as I am.

I think I hate dayshift!

I am working mornings till Saturday. Then I go back to my beloved afternoons Sunday (soon my precious soon).

I am planning on doing my double run to the fire station Sunday morning.

If the weather cools down tomorrow maybe I will go for a run. Or atleast I will fix my bike puncture and map out a new 12.6km course.

Another afternoon on the 'puter'

Tesso's suggestion of a banner had me thinking about it all morning so I decided to give it a crack.

With lots of playing around on Microsoft Paint, checking out other blogs HTML and many cups of coffee, I have ended up creating this one above.

Thanks go to Dave from the Narre Warren Fire Brigade for the use of the Fire Truck, and special thanks again to 2P for introducing me to website editing.

I think I will leave the HTML settings alone for abit before I do some serious damage.

Banner 

I fear change.

As you may notice I have made some changes to my blog.

With many thanks (and apologies) to 2P, I have seriously plagiarised his blog and tried to update my sidebar.

I did some irreversible damage to my old template so I set up this simpler one.

If I don't look at another computer screen for the rest of the day I will be happy.

If anyone could be so kind and tell me how I move the sidebar from the bottom of the page back to the top I would greatly appreciate it :-)

UPDATE Woohoo I figured out how to move the sidebar all by myself :-))

Early mornings.

This week I am doing early mornings at work. I normally only work afternoons but the driver I swap with has a week of leave. I have been thinking about just following my roster (1 week of days, I week of arvo's etc etc) so I decided to do the dayshift this week to give it a taste.

Yesterday I started at 04:25am and it wasn't as bad as it seemed. I got through the morning and was home by midday so it has its advantages. Today is a day off then I work mornings right through to Saturday. I just have to make sure I get plenty of sleep and I will survive.

In keeping with the early morning theme I woke today at 6:45am and Oscar and I set off for our 11.6km. We completed our circuit in 1:00:19. A little slower than my previous PB. It has surprised me how much you have to concentrate when you are trying to beat the clock.

This past Sunday the family and I packed up the bikes and went for a leisurely ride around Lysterfield Lake. We hooked up with another family we knew and had a great day. Between us there was five kids and four adults. I thought we did ok with only one collision occurring between two kids.

On a 7km trip I think my bike picked up the only nail! I ended up having to run the last 2km, pushing my bike to keep up with the others.


Apart from the puncture, and the stack, we all had a great day. Planning to do it again soon.

Getting better at 11.6km

I arrived home from work about 8:30 last night and spent some time with the family before Oscar and I set out around 9pm for our 11.6km run.

It had been a little humid and sticky during the day so it was nice to run in the cool evening breeze. I set out on a good pace trying to keep at 5mins a km.

I kept Oscar on the lead all the way and he was going great. At the 5km mark where we slowed down last time I noticed we were still at our goal pace.

It was here that I follow the main road on the gravel/sandy path. The lighting isn't the best and with headlights from on comming cars I did have a little trouble seeing where I was going. For safety sake I may have to invest in a light, I would hate to trip and hurt myself. That would really stuff up my night.

In all we completed 11.6 km in a blistering 58:20!! That took 3 minutes of my previous best time and averaged 5:02 a kilometre. The result left me on a high for the rest of the night.

Some have mentioned that they thought my pics from a previous post was a great idea. Well people I am still waiting. I would love to see where you are all running so lets get those pics out there.

11.6km early morning

Oscar and I set off for a 7am (early for me) run yesterday.

It was just over my new found 11.6km course and it was nothing unusual.

I was keeping to 5 minutes a km for the first five then with some small hills I started to lose some time.

Ended up completing it in 1:02:20. Not as well as I hope but still heaps of room for improvement.

Keeping in mind Gronks suggestion for more hills I am planning on introducing some beauties next week. Will keep you informed.

A bike ride and pics

First off I must offer an apology. My 11km running course is actually 10.3km.

Suspicious of my sub 5:00 mins a kilometre (I'm just not that fast). I decided to get the push bike out, replace the cycle computer battery, and measure the distance.
While riding I measured out a slight detour to my regular trial. That new route has added a bit making it 11.6km. I ran this yesterday in a more modest 1:01:48.

Inspired by Lucky Legs photo taking skills on her Blog I decided to take my camera and a snapshot of every kilometre.

Home

This picture was taken from the front of my house. From here I run forward turn left then turn right. I live in a housing estate that is about 10 to 11 years old. You will have to excuse all the piles of garbage lying next to the roads. It is hard rubbish collection week. The streets don't normally look like that.

1 Kilometre

Here you can see the first shooping centre that I pass (first of 3!). It is a fairly small, community shopping strip with a supermarket, swimming school and some speciality take away food shops. Behind the shops is a primary/secondary school. They have kids from grade prep to year 12. With around 1500 children it is very big.

2 Kilometres

This is around the point where I enter in the neighboring suburb of Hampton Park. I have just passed the horse paddocks that Oscar likes to peer into. I follow this road for around 800 metres then turn on to a bike path.

3 Kilometres

We pass another school here. It is a young area so there is plenty of primary schools around. I can usually let Oscar off the lead here and he loves to run free. Just have to secure him if we see other people. He is a very gentle dog that looks mean. People tend to freak out if they see him running loose.

4 Kilometres

Between here and they last pic we pass over a wodden bridge and a wetland. There are plenty of ducks and swans in the water and I should have taken a pic but it didn't fit into my km markers. Maybe next time. Approaching on the left is yet another primary school.

5 Kilometres

We follow a main road along here. It is a lot softer surface than the presiding concrete and I quite enjoy it. You can see a Aldi's supermarket on the right and over the hill we pass a christmas tree farm.

6 Kilometres

At this point we have just climbed two rises. There is one more to go but they aren't that big.

7 Kilometers

Behind the clump of trees on the right hand side is Santa's house. I know he is not Santa but gee he looks like him. If Santa is out the front I know we will want me to stop and have a chat. He really likes Oscar too so he will give him some attention. Today I am relived to see his gate closed.

8 Kilometres

This is the new part of my course. I wanted to start upping the distance to get closer to the 14.7km Run for the Kids distance. This new route has added 1.3kms to my trip.

9 Kilometres

Here we have another bike path. Go up a bit further, turn left and you pass yet another primary school.

10 Kilometres

Here I pass the third shopping centre on the left hand side. It is the largest in Narre Warren South and has a Supermarket, Post Office and many smaller shops. A here chicken shop does the best Chicken Schiznel chips and gravy. Not very good for the running athlete I want to be and but very hard to resist. I passed my Grandmother out for a walk a bit further ahead. Paused the stopwatch as she wanted to have a chat.

11 Kilometres

My kids school is on the left here. It is only 12 months old and I like to help out and volunteer for things when I can.
At this point I normally turn on the speed for the run home. I now know that it is 600 metres to go and I run it as fast as I can.

Well that is it for my new 11.6km course. As I mentioned yesterday I ran it in 1:01:48 and I see heaps of room for improvement.

I also enjoyed the bike riding today and plan on adding it for some cross training.

Two runs and a house fire

Oscar and I went for our speed session on Tuesday morning. A 2km run for a warm up then a few laps at the local oval. The oval has 6 drain covers evenly spaced so we sprint to one, jog to the next one. After four laps I'm feeling rather buggered so we called it a day and ran the scenic, 3km route back home.

Yesterday we hit our regular 11km course. No PB's set but a steady time of 54:48 achieved.

Last night I had just gotten to bed at 12:40am when my pager went off. It was a fire call for a shop sign burning. I quickly got dressed then drove to the station. Our Pumper turned out just when I arrived so I quickly dressed in my turn-out gear.

I jumped in the drivers seat of the Tanker and with two other Firefighters in the front cab we followed the other truck to the call.

Narre Warren and Hampton Park's pumper beat us on scene and the fire was well out when we arrived. Fire had damaged an electric sign on the awning of the premises and we stayed a little while isolating the power.

Back at the station I hanged around talking crap with the others (as you do hehe) when another call came in.

This one was for a house fire in the neighboring suburb of Berwick.

We all hurriedly piled into the truck and after a quick lights and sirens run arrived to find a house with dark smoke billowing from the front door.

I grabbed a hose line and went up to the house while two others donned breathing apparatus (BA). The female resident was lying at the front door catching her breath and a neighbor was seeing to her. My Officer in Charge and I checked to see if they were ok then concentrated on the fire.

I passed the hose to Harro and Tony who were wearing BA. Then crouching down at the front door I held on the home owners dog. The poor little bugger was shaking and scared, trying to get back inside.

The fire was quickly extinguished once Harro and Tony got water on to it. A rapid search revealed no-one else inside and the ambulance treated and drove the lady to hospital for smoke inhalation.

I was told the damage was minimal. Kept to the main bed and a bedside table it was a good save. If it had gone much longer it could have really taken hold.

Early unconfirmed reports say that the fire may have been caused by cigarette smoking materials. Another good reason why not too smoke.

I eventually crawled into bed at 4:30am.

I haven't heard if the lady is ok yet. We don't usually get that information but I'm sure she was fine. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything different.

A long slow run

I set off for Lysterfield Lake Park early this morning for a long slow run.

I arrived just after 8:30am and after I consulted a map I set off for the 16.2km return via the Churchill National Park and the Trig Point lookout.

The first 30 minutes was fairly pleasant. Jogging along at a slow pace just enjoying the woodlands and scenery. I spotted two kangaroos, technically three. One had a baby joey with her. I stopped to take a pic with my camera-phone but they were a bit too far away.

The course started to get a little steeper. As Steve Moneghetti had wrote that it was ok to walk a little on the slow, long run, I pushed myself until it got too steep then allowed myself to walk the last 80 meters.

I wasn't at the top of the hill yet. Just a crest before it leveled out for about 800 meters. Then the final 500 meter ascent up a access trial to the summit.

It was a great view at the top. I could see many of the surrounding suburbs, Narre Warren, Rowville and even Port Phillip Bay in the distance. I stopped for a little to have a drink and to get my breath back.

There was a sign post pointing Churchill Park as another 3.1km away, 6.1km back to my car. I started off toward Churchill Park but the road became VERY steep! I could see no end of it and the thought of having to run/walk back up the hill left me with dread.

I decided to leave Churchill National Park and the 16.2km for another day. Turning around I ran back to my car. It was all downhill and very enjoyable. There was a lot of Mountain Bike riders about and I started to pass some other runners heading to the summit.

I was surprised and thrilled when one of the runners called out "Go Coolrunner!" (I was wearing my CR cap). This hasn't happened to me before and I am hoping I may have been finally spotted and posted here.

Back at the car I calculated I traveled about 12.5 kilometers in 1 hour 20 minutish (I forgot to pause my watch on the summit). Not too bad for a slow run.

On the way home I stopped in at Bunnings for lawnmower fuel and Whipper Snipper cable. Finished off the rest of the day cutting grass and weeding in the garden.

To say I am a little sore right now is an understatement. But probaly not as sore as Tesso. What a legend!

Don't you just love PB's.

Oscar and I set a PB for our 11km course this morning. We completed it in 53:32 minutes. I'm starting to suspect my distance maybe a little shy of 11 kilometers. Until I get a Garmin Forerunner 205 (wink, wink, nudge, nudge to my lovely Wife), I won't really know.

The run this morning felt so good. Oscar has had a break for a week and he did a great job of keeping up. I'm getting better at the faster pace I push myself when there is 1km to go. I surprise myself with the extra energy.

The scales also have me at a PB. The first time under 101 kilo at 100.8. Im going to be so excited when I hit double figures again. Not long now.

Running at the Zoo

A couple of months ago I received a mail out inviting me to enter in the Melbourne CitySports Super Sunset Series. Melbourne CitySports were running three races at 4 or 8km. They are being held at the Melbourne Zoo, Princess Park and The Tan. Last night I ran in the one being held at the Melbourne Zoo.

Yesterday it seemed to rain all day. I was regulary checking the Melbourne CitySports webpage for cancellation before I headed off to catch a train to the city.

At Flinders St I had to catch another train to the Zoo. To my utter frustration that one was delayed by 10 minutes. I can find my workplace so disappointing when I am using it as a commuter.

The rain had eased up when I got to Royal Park, I joined the queue to pick up my very cool, grey and purple T-shirt, race number 315 and race pack.

I spotted other Coolrunners around. Alisonjc and I introduced ourselves and spent some time chatting. She has dared me to enter the Melbourne Half Marathon and I think I will take her up on it. She then introduced me to Stu Mac, Eat 'Em, Tiger Boy, Downunder Runner and Go4it.

The race started 30 minutes later than advertised. People were still queuing up to register at the official start time.

We started off very bunched up. I was going faster than normal just trying to find a clear spot. 700 meters into the race and we had a large uphill section, the group started to thin out a little then. I could see Go4it's Coolrunning cap bobbing away in the distance so I set out to reel her in.

About 1.5km the course turned into the Zoo. It was fantastic scenery. Running through the Rainforest, elevated monkey bridge, down past the lions and back out again. The police had the traffic stopped on Oplar rd then we ran around the ninth hole of the Royal Park golf course. Crossing over Oplar rd again we pass through the starting gate.

I was thrilled to see my first lap of 4km done in 20 minutes and I was getting closer to Go4it. I pushed on again up the hill then caught up to her at the entrance too the Zoo.

With no room for overtaking till we got out of the monkey enclosures I passed Go4it at the 6km point and gave her a thumbs up.

The next 1.5kms I started to feel the effort I had put in at the start of the race. I had forgotten about Go4it till she passed me with 500 meters to go telling me to hurry up. I pulled the extra effort from somewhere and kept up, finishing right behind her at 40:03.

I am pretty happy with my 8km's in 40 minutes. Without the extra push at the end I'm sure I would have been a bit longer than that.

I looked out for Alisonjc at the finish line but didn't see her. As there is only and hourly train service out to my place I set off before the presentations started.

Thanks to all the Coolrunners at the event for your encouragement. My investment in a CR cap has been very worthwhile.