Shopping and a 5km run.

Last night Oscar and I got out for our regular 5km run. Wednesday normally has a longish 10km according to Hal Higdeon, but I had prepared a Shepards Pie for dinner that was happily cooking in the oven. I only had about 30 minutes to spare for a run.

I pushed us fairly hard as penance for missing my 10km and was pleased to get back home for a 5km PB of 0:23:32. I had time for a quick shower and hopped in for a fantastic, carbohydrate loaded, dinner.

This 5km distance is really starting to feel like a short run now.

Today saw the kids and I take a trip to Active Feet in Heathmont for my next pair of runners. As advised I took my old Kayanos and was video taped on the treadmill walking and running. With my old shoes and then barefoot (I have such ugly toes uugghh). Tom the salesperson suggested as I haven't had trouble with Kayano's, I should stick with them. I indicated that I would like to try an equivalent shoe in Brooks so I had a run in a pair of Brooks Trance. Straight away I knew I didn't like them. They just felt too tall in the rear foot compared to my Asics. I bought the Kayanos XII's. Even though they are they same type as my old ones, all clean they look like a totally different shoe. New right shoe is in the foreground.

I have to admit that I feel a little foolish for paying $60 more for these shoes at Active Feet than I would have paid at Rebel Sport. I did talk to Tom a lot about running, shoes and my progress so far but I'm not sure if I could say that the service was worth the extra money. I originally went to a shoe specialist to check my running gait and see if the Kayano's were appropriate. I suppose now I should have known that since the Asics hadn't given me any trouble why change them? If it ain't broke why fix it?

My other shopping trip was to Rebel Sports to spend my birthday money and vouchers. I was originally going to get a pair of long Skins tights but at $134 I quickly changed my mind. I will keep an eye out on eBay and online for them I think. I ended up buying a pair of black Nike tights for the cooler weather runs. I need something to motivate me to get outside when it has been so cold lately.

I'm just waiting now for my wife Sal to get home from work. She can take over babysitting duties while I get out in the cold to try out my new toys.

Keep an eye for another post soon.

Tagged.

Thanks Wobbly Man. I too think I have done this or something similar lately but I always find them good fun:

4 Jobs I have had:
Service Station/Driveway Attendant
Cleaner
Railway Station Assistant
Train Driver

4 movies I watch over and over again:
Mad Max
Anything with the words "Star Wars" in it
Back to the Future Triology
Groundhog Day

4 Places I have lived:
Belgrave
Strathmerton
Northcote
Boronia (All in Victoria. Very lame)

4 T.V. Shows I love to watch:
Third Watch
Survivor
The Amazing Race
Cops

4 Places I have been on Vacation:
Gold Coast, Queensland
Newcastle, NSW
Big River, Victoria
Tasmania (Never left the country. Very very lame.)

4 Websites I visit daily:
coolrunning.com.au
Bloglines.com
ebay
Country Fire Authority

4 of my Favorite Foods:
Spagehetti Bolognase
Roast Lamb
Ice Cream
Subway

4 Places I would rather be right now:
Canada (Must be warmer than here??)
Russia
The starting line of The Melbourne Marathon
In a galaxy far, far away (Refer question 2)

4 Favorite Bands/Singers:
AC/DC
Kiss
Rogue Traders
Eminem

4 Bloggers I am Tagging:
Stormbikes
Louise
psbowe
R2B

Weekend long runs and a Birthday.

Today marks my 35th year on this planet. As you may know I recieved a Garmin Forerunner 305 last Friday for a gift and I am currently collecting vouchers and cash for a upcoming Rebel Sports shopping trip. I have my eye on a pair of Skins for long run recovery and some new runners later on in the week. Now that the silliness of an old mans birthday is out of the way lets get down to running business.

My new toy The Garminator and I have enjoyed a weekend of long runs in accordance to week 3 of Hal Higdon's Intermediate II marathon plan.

Saturday it was a race pace run of 10.17km. Oscar and I finished it in a 10km PB of 0:48:59. It was a good run but in a effort to impress The Garminator I think I pushed myself a bit harder than normal. I had played with the settings on the heart rate monitor and set the alarm for 185 beats per minute. At around the 6km mark the heart rate alarm sounded and kept sounding off and on till I got back home. The spikes on the speed graph show where I stopped to cross roads, take Oscar's leash on or off and even where I stopped and waited for Oscar to do a poo!

Garminator I set off alone for the long run on Sunday. This was the first step back long run distance and I ran 13.03km in 1:07:16. I set off down the road, turning back when The Garminators pre-set distance alarm activated half way at 6.5kms. A lot of spikes in the speed graph this time and I didn't have Oscar to blame. It must be times I paused the GPS while I stopped to cross roads etc etc.

I am using both Motionbased and SportsTracks for collating the GPS and HRM data at the moment. I'm sure that once the novelty wears off I may start using only one. My ever faithful Excel running log seems to have become a thing of the past and I will be retiring it at the end of the month. If anyone can offer tips and points feel free to yell out.

1st Garminator spin

I waited kind of patiently for The Garminator to charge up this afternoon. When the 3 hours was up I strapped it on and had a play with some of the settings.

Once I thought I had it figured out Oscar and I set off for our 5km run. After three minutes I had to turn back for home when I realised I had forgot the heart rate monitor doh!

We set off again with all the gadgets in place, and completed 5.1km according to Garminator in 0:23:44. My average heart-rate was 170 bpm.

It took a little stuffing around connecting the Garmin to the computer. I then downloaded SportsTracks and came up with this,

Very exciting stuff and I'm looking forward to learning more things on my new toy.

My Birthday is not until Monday the 26th and so far I have recieved the Garmin and a $50 Rebel Sport voucher. So cool!

Welcome The Garminator

My Garmin Forerunner 305 that I ordered last Saturday from www.youprice.com.au has arrived!!

I'm hoping it would get here today but I still don't quite believe it!


I wasn't even 100% convinced that the company was on the level. I am so excited that it is here.

The hardest part now is waiting 3 hours for The Garminator to charge up before I can play with it.

Will be going for a run this afternoon and looking forward to reporting later.

Stay tuned folks!

Sore feet

Since my last post I have two runs to report.

I went out on Monday for my postponed long run completing 17km in 1:31:00. I didn't really have the motivation for this run but I knew I would regret it later if I didn't go. I filled my Fueltbelt with water, house keys and a turned off mobile phone. The Fuelbelt has been the one of my better, eBay running related purchases. Being school holidays there was a lot of people out using the walking path and I started feeling positive about my decision to get out on such a beautiful winters day. From the 9km to the 15km mark I could feel a second wind come on and my strides become longer. Now I was really enjoying myself. The last 2km's involves a small hill and I was happy to get back home.

My second run was yesterday when Oscar and I did a quick 5km run around the block. We arrived back home in a blistering 0:23:57. An average of 4:47 a km.

Today I have a 10km run programmed in but I have to get a annoying chore called "go to work" out of the way first.

After both runs this week my feet hurt a little with a bit of muscle tiredness in my legs, but this is no surprise. My Asics Kayanos are well past their replacement date with 829km on the clock. Last payday I had the choice of the Forerunner 305 on special ($73 cheaper that prosportwatches.com. Thanks for the question blkbox) or new shoes. As posted I chose the Garmin so the shoes have to wait till pay day next week. I believe I am a neutral to moderate pronator and wonder if my feet actually need such a motion control shoe as the Kayano's. I'm planning a trip to Active Feet for a second, more experienced opinion. I would love to hear any feedback from readers who have shopped at Active Feet before.

Ocean Grove 2km circuit

I went out on my planned run 8km Saturday morning completing in 0:38:50. I ran 4 laps of the 2km circuit pictured below.

I am familiar with the big hill on Thacker St that both Steve and Sekhmet mentioned. It is not far from my in-laws place and I will incorporate it into a run next time I visit.

My long run of 17km's has been postponed till tomorrow due to a late Saturday night and more work training starting today.

This week I am being taught the operations of the Connex train the Xtrapolis.

This train is another part of the former Connex side that I am yet to experience.

I ordered a Garmin Forerunner 305 Saturday morning from youprice.com.au. The site said postage will be 4 to 10 days and I will be waiting eagerly for it's arrival.

As you could imagine I am hoping it will arrive here sooner rather than later.

A brief history of Connex

Oscar and I ran yesterday and today for my training program. Yesterday we did 5km in 0:24:10 and today it was 8km in 0:39:02. Both these runs I did when I got home after work and they were a little bit of a struggle to get motivated. Though I did appreciate the effort once I had finished the run and arrived back home.

I am also doing training at work but I will have to give a brief history of my workplace and public transport in Melbourne to explain.

I have been employed with the railways since 1990 and driving trains since 1991. For those that don't know Victoria's public transport was quite extensive. Trams, trains and busses were all operated by the government and was called the Public Transport Corporation (PTC).

In 1997 we had a change of government and it was decided that the PTC would be split up and franchised out to private companies. The trams where split into Swanston and Yarra Trams. Country trains were divided into Passenger and Freight companies and the suburban trains where divided into Connex and MTrain. I found myself working for MTrains and no longer drove on the Connex side of the train network.

Things were going fine until December 2002 when National Express, the overseas company that operated MTrains, decided it was no longer viable to operate trains in Melbourne. They abandoned their franchise, customers and staff and headed back to the United Kingdom. The government then stepped in and operated MTrains until Connex reclaimed the whole network in April 2004 and everyone was back in the one happy family.

But now we have MTrain drivers who haven't driven on the Connex lines in over 8 years and Connex drivers who haven't driven on the MTrain side. There has been some changes to both sides, and it is a little hard to stop a 300+ tonne vehicle at stations that you don't remember being just around the corner, or at the bottom of the next hill.

We are in the process of teaching drivers the old lines again and this week it is my turn. For the past two days I have been getting up early, catching a train into the city and learning the old lines. Yesterday I did the Belgrave and Lilydale lines and today it was Hurstbridge and Epping. It has been quite a trip down memory lane and a interesting experience. I even spotted a Coolrunner running in Croydon on Tuesday and posted it on the non race Coolrunner sightings post.

House fire for a cardio workout

The Marathon program called for a light cardio workout today with cross training. We had originally planned a family bike ride but with the constant rain and drizzle during the day the ride was ruled out.

My fire brigade pager went off with a call to a house fire and I responded for a 4 hour workout.

The call was to a lounge room on fire in a unit but when we arrived the whole place was well alight. I was thinking workout when I had to drag 120 metres of fire house up a hill, climb a ladder to remove hot roof tiles, pull down the smoldering ceiling inside the house while wearing 15 kilos of Breathing Apparatus and take one and a half hours cleaning and rolling up hose to pack up the truck afterwards.

Thankfully the occupants all managed to get outside safely. It seems that the fire had started from an electric heater in the lounge room. Normally this may have been contained to the one room but someone over the years had covered the whole roof space in newspapers. This was done as a poor attempt at extra insulation, creating a dry and ready to burn fuel that spread fire very quickly and was hard to extinguish.

I have lost count of the amount of house fires I have been to in 8 years with the Country Fire Authority but I never stop feeling sorry for the occupants. I couldn't imagine having to sit on the side of the road watching your house and belongings being destroyed. It must be a very hard thing to experience.

In this colder weather please be careful with heaters, dryers and anything else that can create heat. This misfortune could happen to anyone.

Week 1 Marathon training

First to answer a few questions;

David Criniti asked "Got a target time in mind for the marathon?"

No target time set thanks. This is my first marathon and I will be just thrilled to finish. But then I have worked out that if I can keep running at a comfortable pace I suppose a time between 3:40 to 3:50 is not out of the question.

Tesso asked "Does your current one (training plan) also include a longish (15 - 17k) mid week run?"

Yes the Hal Higdon intermediate II plan does have a longish run midweek. This starts at 8 km this week to as much as 16km in week 13.

Today brings to an end week 1 of my training plan. 42 kilometres is less than I am used to in a week and I may increase the k's a little more till the plan catches up. I do like the structure of the plan including the long runs on the weekend. Yesterday (Saturday) Oscar and I did a 8km in 0:38:02 and this morning I went alone on the long run of 16km completed in 1:24:11.

The long run was a bit of fun actually. It was over a different route than I would normally use, 8km to the neighboring suburb of Berwick and return. I was pushing for my goal time of 5 mins a km but with a strong headwind from the 8 to 12km mark it wasn't possible. Still a average of 5:16 a km is about my standard.

Starting Monday the program has Cross Training (a leisurely bike ride with the family), 5km run on Tuesday, 8km run Wednesday, 5km run Thursday, a day of rest on Friday, 8km run Saturday and a 17km long run on Sunday.

My lovely wife Sal has promised a Garmin Forerunner 205 for my 35th birthday on the 26th of this month. I have been after one of these jiggers for a long time and can't wait. But now I have read of a few teething problems with the new X05 models. Do people think I should take the chance on the new model or maybe just purchase the older, tested and tried 201?

"Soon my precious, soon."

A very quick post.

Oscar and I ran an old 5km course around the block today. Pushed really hard and completed it in 0:23:53. That's less than 5 minutes a km. That adds to the 8km's that I turned out on the treadmill last night (0:41:08).

Hal Higdons Intermediate II Marathon plan is going along great. Initially less kilometres than I normally do but the long weekend runs start adding up soon.

Lysterfield Lake Park

No running today. I'm saving myself for 8km on the treadmill at work tonight. I figure if I struggle for time during the day I will just save it for work then I get paid to run.

A friend of mine, Salli, and I went for a walk around Lysterfield Lake Park this morning. It was pretty cold and started of with heavy fog. We got up to close to a curious kangaroo and I took the oppurtunity for a pic.

In all it is a walk of about 5km's. I don't know how long it took as I didn't take my watch (aahhh free!!). I also found a hill that would be great for some hill sprints later. Lysterfield Lake Park looks great and I should really do some more running around here.

A few nights ago I also took this great pic at work.

It is taken from the cab of the second last Pakenham train while approaching Officer. Not really running related but I wanted to share it.

I have noticed on the Marathon Training Plan that there doesn't seem to be many km's during the week. More so the long runs on the weekend is where the kilometres seem to play out. Also the longest run is 30km's. Thats about 12k's short of race distance. Is this normal for Marathon training?

Training begins

I have thought a lot about my comments on my last post. I have also done a little research and counting the figures and have found that from this week it is exactly 18 weeks to the Melbourne Marathon.

As it so happens 18 weeks is the length of Hal Higdon's Marathon training plan. I have had a look at the plan and converted the figures from miles to kilometres and I do believe I can do it.

So as of this week it looks like I am in training. I will stick to Hal's plan as best as I can. If anyone can suggest a better training plan feel free to let me know.

The Next Challenge

Some of you may have noticed that I have set my 'Next Big Thing' to the Sri Chinmoy Princess Park 30km. It is a step up after the half and I was unsure of the 6 laps of a 5km course. I like my runs to have a little bit more variety. Then I thought if Tesso and others can run a 100+km's on a 500 metre track the Sri Chinmoy event will be a walk in the park (pardon the pun).

I ran a fartlek session on the treadmill at work last night. 7.6km in 40 minutes. I upped the top speed to 14.5kph and had the incline at 2%. Last night I nearly fell off the back of the machine during the one of the sprints. I was watching Funniest Home Videos and during a particularly amusing video, I didn't paying as much attention as I should have and strayed a little close to the edge. With a grab of the handle, a quick sprint and a loud yell of something that resembled "FARTLEK!!" I soon avoided disaster. Of course someone had to be watching, I just wish they had a video camera going at the time.

After 744 kilometres I think my Asics Kayanos are close to replacement time. I have felt a few niggles after runs and I don't think the shock absorption is working as well as it did. Noticing a ad on the back of the latest R4YL magazine for the latest Kayanos has probaly influenced the idea a little too. Though I have been impressed with Sal's success with her two pairs of Brooks. I may have to check out their range and see if there is anything I like.

Edit: I have just surfed the net and noticed that the 2006 Melbourne Marathon has been announced for October 8th. It started me thinking that if I could run 30km at Princess Park in late July, 42.2km in October would be possible.

Hhmmm I wonder.....