Run Melbourne Run

Well it's the end of Week 8 and what a week it was! Such a busy week at work with so many things to do, briefs to finalise and all the other 'important' stuff that a public servant does haha. Wednesday's training - hmmmm what can I say - I was going to skip it all together. I was sitting at work and checked the BOM and saw this massive rain front coming across Melbourne, due to hit right when we start our training of course. I got home and was about to drive down the lake when the rain was pelting against my balcony window and it was so windy. I persisted though and drove to training, it took me 30min to get from Toorak to Albert Park, the traffic was hideous. Not many of us braved the weather and poor Nick (the Coach) was still off sick. We had another coach for the night who took us for a good warm-up run and then over to pit straight where we did straights and curves - basically run at 70% to this point, then run 90% to this other point and rest a bit until you get back to the start - do that until you start spewing or you've done it 10 times. It was good until the damn sky clouded over again and it started raining, it was so cold I could feel my nipples sticking through my shirt, chafing away as I ran - ouch! 

On Friday I had my first appointment for a root canal, let's just say that I hate dentists and leave it at that. Saturday I had a bit of a sleep in, no training for me on Saturday so I'd booked my flatmate V and I to go kayaking and abseiling for the day. It was a great day, I learnt that my flatmate is no good at steering a kayak and gets a bit confused with left and right haha. But we made it down the yarra rapids in one piece, saturated and cold. Abseiling was fun as well but damn cold, my shirt was a bit damp and I forgot my jacket, getting in the car and putting the heater on was the best thing about it.

Cut to Sunday 5.15am and my alarm is going off to get up for the Run Melbourne half marathon. I met the Can Too guys at 6.30 and we did a quick warm up and then went up to the start line. Annie Crawford, the founder of Can Too was there doing it with us, it was great. From my group there was 2 of us plus our 2 mentors Kate and Nicole. I ran with Kate the whole way and it was a pretty cool course, especially along the yarra and around fawkner park. Luckily the rain held off and it was pretty sunny all day. We finished in 1:48:08 which was pretty good, my sore foot didn't get any worse thankfully (although it is today). Can Too has a great spread of food and champagne afterwards, makes me want to look forward to our race in October - although thinking about doing that track again is a tad daunting and very very scary!!! 42km is so far when you've just done 21km - I know why it is all mental thoughts to get you through to the end.

FUNDRAISING: Well it looks like I've hit my target, well I will very soon. I'm just waiting for a cheque to come in from Entertainment Books and I will be over the line. A total of $2,000 so far!! A big thanks to those who have donated, bought the chocolates, entertainment books and handbag hangers and to work for the money we raised at the morning tea - it doesn't mean I have to stop here though - if you would still like to donate please use the link and search for my name. Maybe together we can raise the target to $3,000?

18km in the wind

The temperature on my phone Saturday morning at 7am said 14 degrees, I seriously thought there was something wrong with it, no way could it be so warm in the morning. It was dark and winter - it must be under 5 degrees? Fast forward 15min after downing a brunch bar and banana and I found out that it was indeed under 14 thanks to the gale force winds.

Nick (the coach) was away so it was just the crew with Nicole this morning, we all decided it would be better to follow last weeks route and extend it by 2kms so we could keep out of the wind. We were due to run down the esplanade to Brighton and back, and my god - I'm so glad we didn't, the wind would've ripped right through us. There was one time when we came round a bend and got blown backwards a bit. Overall it was a pretty good run though. Graeme and I ran an average 5km p/hour run for the 18kms. I tried taking my water bottle holder with me, but I had to empty it after the first 200m as it bloody kept leaking all over my leg! Not the most pleasant experience in the world, if I was 80 I wouldn't know if it was the water or my bladder, but then I don't think I'd be running at 80 haha.

I went to Costco today, damn they didn't have Brunch bars, but I did find some bulk party pies for my fundraising morning tea next Friday and a 1.8kg jar of Jelly Belly jelly beans!!!! I just finished counting them ALL - yes I washed my hands, but I counted them on a chopping board with a knife to seperate them, I had to keep track every hundred though, and might I say - it's going to be a touch competition!!! I think I will sell guesses at $2 each at work during the week and see if I can add to my fundraising using that method.

Friday night was the first Trivia planning night as well, with the help of Virginia my friend and housemate. It was just Kate and I though as Mr Mollison had a "prior" engagement. He can put in the hard yards for the next one. So we drafted our email to send to some companies to try and get some prizes donated for either a silent auction or door prizes. I'll let you know how we go.

I really want a jelly bean! Next weekend is meant to be the recovery week with a reduction in KM's to 14 on Saturday, but I won't be going to that, I've entered into the Run Melbourne half marathon on Sunday so I will be Pounding the Pavement for that one - I really just want the medal haha.

I found this YouTube clip of CanToo as well - take a look Click HERE.

And as always, if you read this and you are able to sponsor me, please CLICK HERE, I only need another $700 and then I become a fundraising star and I can focus on training rather than fundraising.... here's hoping! Together we can beat the big "C"

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When your bed is empty and cold you go for a run

I think I woke up around 3am freezing my arse off! It was lonely and cold with the sound of the wind outside so I laid in bed trying to get back to sleep with no luck, I was thinking about someone in particular and checking to see what time it was in the USA, maybe they would be on facebook chat? But sadly not :(

It was absolutely freezing when I was getting changed but I think that was just my bedroom, maybe it was the presence of my ghost. I didn't have to use the squedgee to see through my windscreen this morning thank god, so I made it the lake in one piece and was able to drive at more than 40kms per hour. Maybe my car is starting to dry out finally. You see the old Calais leaks a 'bit' of water on the floor and is now starting to sprout grass, I call it the "Rice Paddy".

It wasn't actually that cold this morning, had to leave the gloves in the car for a change. This mornings run was a good 16kms down to the tan, up to Flinders St, across the river and down to Punt Rd bridge return. There was heaps of other CanToo'ers on the same track, it was great! Everytime you run past someone in the CanToo singlet you hear "Go CanToo" - it feels awesome to be part of such a big team and to it's great to give support to the fellow runners who brave the early mornings like me to do the same thing. The run itself was good, I felt good. I had a banana for breakfast which normally makes me a bit acidic in the stomach (over share) and I downed one of those Up & Go VIBE drinks. I think I need to start taking some gels with me though, around 10-12kms I started to feel a big sluggish like I had no energy. Of course I did, but the old body didn't think the same thing. Some of those little PowerBar lollies from woolies would've done nicely or a Gu gel. I love the chocolate ones, no water required, just the chocolate flavour Gu - dee-licious!
I found my old water bottle holder as well, sans water bottle though. This week I need to make it my goal to get a new bottle and next weeks run I need to try and run with it - last time I used it I just remember it bouncing up and down like those little dog things people put on their dashboards. Annoying to say the least!
The fundraising is still going ok, at last count I think I was up to about $1,300, that includes $400 from selling chocolates at work (lots of chocoholics at Treasury and Finance) and about 17 entertainment books sold now as well. Jarvo and Luke are starting CanToo training for the half marathon on Wednesday night and we're going to plan a trivia night for a fundraiser, we might as well host one as the last few that we've entered we have come last in - very brainy lot of friends haha!! I got a book for my birthday though "Organising a trivia night for dummies" so that's my read for tonight.
Well you might be thinking what on earth that pic of the dog has to do with running? I saw him at a cafe in Toorak last weekend, he was asleep with his head on the table for ages, it made me think that is the way I feel after doing a long run - exhausted that I could just go back to bed, oh and the dog was just gorgeous.

Where ever you are in the world, I hope you have a good one :)

14km

I saw Sex and the City 2 last night, I didn't actually mind it although I didn't get home till after 11pm, so waking up at 6.45am to go for my training run was a bit painful. I could hear the rain outside and my trusty iPhone told me it was only 5 degrees!! But I persevered and by the time I drove to Albert Park it was a pretty clear morning (but still cold). Driving there was an effort though, my car leaks water and the passenger floor fills up like a puddle which creates condensation inside the window, plus it grows grass as well - so I took the squeegee from the shower so I could see.

We ran 14km today, from the lake down the esplanade to the kiosk at Elwood and back, nice morning for a run, a little bit drizzly at times but watching the sun come up was a pretty good way to start the day and the rainbow over the bay on the way home was good to see as well. Tina and I stopped for a photo from Nicole as well, so we will have to see how that turns out, it was at the 8 or 9km mark so we must've looked a treat haha.

Well we are about a 1/4 of the way through training and it only gets bigger from here on. I think next week is 16km and we keep rising till we peak at 35km!

Fundraising is going pretty good as well, at last count I'd sold about 14 Entertainment Books which I get $13 from each one, $670 in donations and I've got to bank $220 from chocolate sales. It's the end of the financial year soon (as Foxtels tells us all) and any donations you make you won't have to keep a receipt for a full 12 months to claim back, so please dig deep and donate for a such a worthy cause. Click here to donate, search for Matt.

Time for a well deserved brunch with my friends now :) ciao

Running in the Rain with a glass of wine

What a week it was!! I did a fair bit of running last week, and boy was it damn cold. Wednesday's session was absolutely freezing, the wind was coming through my new long sleeve top like no tomorrow. We did a bit of a warm up jog then proceeded with 8x400m sprints with 400m rests in between, but these rests just meant a 'slow' jog. It was a pretty good session though, albeit for the freezing weather. I really need to invest in some light gloves, my hands felt like an eskimo.

Saturday was a 12km run from the lake to the St.Kilda marina and back, was a beautiful morning for a run except for the big fat grey cloud over us that decided to piss down for most of the way home, it was blue sky over the bay, just not over us! We finished it off with some sprints as our 'cool down' or to stretch our fast twitching muscle fibres I think... Some weird voodoo stuff must've been happening down by that lake because we saw sawn off chicken feet scattered around the lake - bizzare! I had a 'few' good reasons to race str8 home after training, one of them was to pack my bags and get picked up for our weekend in Rutherglen for the Winery Walkabout tour. Our combined group all wore big colourful ties with words on them like 'I'm 2 sexy' and 'Kiss me' (mine was Kiss Me), I bought them for $2.50 each and decided that I would let everyone know about my goal to raise money for Cure Cancer Australia and whatever they chose to donate would go to the cause, I gave up the $$ I spent buying them and donated that as well. I ended up making $90 which will go towards the target of $2,000. We even chatted to some waitresses at Hog's Breath and sold them 2 spare ties. The rest of the weekend was a blur, I have unexplained bruises, we lost our friend and flatmate Virginia, I got denied access to my bank account for putting in the wrong pin - let's just say this weekend will be ALOT quieter.

I've made up for my bad behaviour with 2 laps of the tan with Lukas, he and Kate have signed up for the half marathon through Can Too as well. Let the training begin!! Although with how tired I'm feeling now I don't think training tomorrow is going to feel that great.

Week 2 - long(er) run

I did quite a few short runs this week, starting out with a run from South Yarra, round the Tan track and back with Luke. Luke is going to start the Can Too program with Kate for the half marathon which starts in a few months time. It was a great night for a run, even though it was a tad cold. Then it was a lunchtime run with Tanya from work, we went from work in the city, round the Tan and back.

I missed out on the Wednesday Can Too session which was a time trial round Albert Park Lake, oh well, I 'll have to make up for it at the next one so I can get a time for 5km.

Saturday morning was cold!! cold!! cold!! Driving to the lake about 7am I couldn't see out of my window with the condensation on the outside of the car. This weeks run was a 10km or 60min run from the lake across to the Tan track and up near the Tennis Centre. I ran with Graeme and Tina and it turned out to be an awesome morning for a run, albeit early! As we crossed the Swan St bridge the sun was rising up from behind the MCG, magically to see. Normally at that time on a Saturday I'm dead to the world with alcohol seeping from my pores. But not anymore, Saturdays are all about training now! We finished the run in 50min and then had the usual stretches, gatorade and muesli bars, not a bad way to finish a run hey.

My RunKeeper was rudely interrupted though when the dentist called to see if I could in earlier in the morning. I answered the call mid run and the poor girl must've thought I might have been up to something else.

From here training starts to ramp up each week, we increase each run by about 2km each week and eventually we will be running for 35km straight! My aim is to try and slow down as the distances get longer, I struggle to go slower and I think as they get longer I'm going to burn out unless I slow the pace.

In other news, the sore toe has made a comeback, Red Grapefruits taste disgusting and I sold 10 Entertainment Books, which adds $130 to my fundraising total.

If you haven't sponsored me yet, please do. Perfect timing to claim it in your tax! (Click Here to Sponsor and search for Matt)

off for a run with Luke now

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate!!

15 boxes of heaven arrived on my doorstep this morning. You can't say no to a sneaky chocolate late in the afternoon can you?

Now all I have to do is set them out on the table at work....and wait... just like a hunter in the woods, if I leave the bait they will come. I'm not sure if they will all sell before October. Look out if you work with me - I will be pushing chocolate at you for months, gone are your diets and dignity!

I had to miss out on training this week, so it's back into it on Saturday for a nice 10km run, hopefully my new Timex Triathlon watch arrives tomorrow :)