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 :)

City2Surf here I come!

Time to look into getting some cheap flights to Sydney! Although if I want
to actually get there I guess I better not fly Tiger hey. Why am I heading
up to God's country you might ask? Well I've just signed up and paid for my
2nd City2Surf in Sydney. It's not till August, but I like to plan ahead and
get in early. I was pretty excited because I've also qualified for the SH1
group - in English this means that for the City2Surf in 2009 I finished in
sub 75min (67min actually). Hopefully now it means I can avoid the 'many
thousands and thousands' of people and perhaps improve on my time. I
remember last year I was dodging and weaving for a good 12kms and even at
the end there was no room to run in a straight line. I'm also part of the
Flight Centre team again this year, running along in a nice little Flight
Centre singlet, and the bonus of being part of their team is that they
provide food/drinks (lovely cold beer) and free massages at the end. Do you
think they can get free flights as well?

Don't forget to donate if you can CanToo Sponsorship

Week 1 - long(ish) run

Of course the first long run day it had to rain! I also don't think the 'several' glasses of wine with my mates last night was such a good idea.

Training today was at 7.30am at Albert Park lake and we were all off for a nice 8km or 50min run.

Lucky I wore my skins, because damn it was a tad chilly! I used RunKeeper to track my time/pace and map data - I like it heaps better than the other one I was using 'iMapmyrun'.

The rain was quite nice actually, once we started running it was nice and cooling. We headed down Kerford Rd towards the Bay and then along to near Catani Gardens and back.

I got close to 38min which was pretty good. But I need to start slowing down as the distance gets longer. Looking ahead to the 35km run in a few months is a bit scary, no way I can do the same pace for that distance.

It was pretty cool after the run as well, we did some stretches and our CanToo guys provided a big thing of Powerade, snakes and some muesli bars. The team from Adidas came to give us a chat about runners as well. Next Wednesday is the 5km time trial.

The sore toe held up as well. Tad tender now, but not to bad.

26 May - First Training Session

I was a bit nervous turning up, not knowing what to expect, how many people there would be, and I really hate that feeling. I'm the sort of person who doesn't like feeling out place and not knowing what is happening.

First day training and the meet and greet was at 6.30pm near the rowing club on Albert Park lake. It was dark and I couldn't see anyone near the rowing shed. Crap! Finally I saw a girl walk from inside and she pointed me in the right direction. It was a smallish group, all filling in health questionnaires and introducing each other. The CanToo founder Annie Crawford was down from Sydney to meet us and our trainer Nick with a few other staff and support were there, buggared if I can remember their names yet though.

It's all pretty well organised, we got a little show bag with a training singlet and some wrist band sunscreen - very novel! Virginia (my flatmate) has taken one to her work to see if they can use it for their marketing as well. After our introductions and some chit chat we headed down for the first session. A slow jog round to the Carousel then 3x1km intervals with a 400m rest in between each one. It was an awesome night for a run, the view around the lake towards the city with a clear night sky is amazing! There were quite a few CanToo groups running, I think the other groups were training for the Run Melbourne in a few months time.

One thing I really enjoyed was the team atmosphere, everyone was supportive and cheering each other on and was felt like a really great group to be part of. I'm really sure the next 20-weeks is going to be alot of fun. Now I need to practice my 'planks', core strength is important!