Sports Super Centre Fun Run - 15km

Getting out of bed at 6am this morning was not pleasant. It was the coolest weekend we’ve had this year, 9 degrees is not my favourite temperature. Give me 25 + any day regardless of what I’m doing.  After a quick breakfast of a toast with jam and a cup of tea with honey we were off to the race venue, luckily only a twenty minute drive. 

In the morning I didn’t feel confident at all about the race. During the week I didn’t feel well, and last night my head throbbed. My last run or any training was five days earlier which did nothing for my confidence levels. But with so many people around, warming up, stretching, jogging back and forth, and Jarek by my side I was starting to feel better. We decided to run this one together, normally on the short runs Jarek would speed ahead and finish at least five minutes before me, but we figure that anything above 10km is better to run together for support and motivation. 

At 7:30, the gun went off and we were racing. As we ran through the parking lot I managed to take off my jumper and quickly throw it my car, I had been cold but within a few hundred metres my body had warmed up. We started at an easy tempo towards the back of the pack. 

The first five kilometres felt easy. We were keeping a good pace, although as we were running I thought we were going slower than my watch was telling me;

1 - 5:36

2 - 5:05

3 - 5:06

4 - 5:01

5 - 4:55

At this point my fingers were freezing and my arms were warm, they felt heavy. I had to straighten them out to let the blood flow through. The time was flying and we were getting through the race quickly.

6 - 5:10

7 - 4:58

8 - 5:06

9 - 5:11 

10 - 5:12

Jarek after the race looking like he could run another 15k easily

With only 5km to go I got a second wind of energy and felt like I could keep running and running. I didn’t want to push too hard but to keep the pace and be able to finish strong. Each kilometre felt good, having Jarek by my side reminding me to hold onto the pace when my body wanted to slow down was amazing. If I was running on my own that pace would be much slower. 

11 - 5:11

12 - 5:01

13 - 5:03

14 - 5:04

15 - 4:52

Taking a rest in the shade

There were moments when I felt myself slowing down and I realised that at the same time my running form was poor, being conscious of this and positioning my body correctly helped in picking up the pace. Just little things like controlled breathing, good posture and arm position can have an impact on the way we run. 

My goal had been to run sub 1:20 and feel good at the end. Jarek and I crossed the finish line at 1:16:31 and felt fantastic finishing strong. I have to say it was probably one of the best races we’ve done in a while and I couldn’t be happier with the result. 

RESULTS

Official time: 1:16:31

Distance: 15km

141/310 Total Finishers

54/177 Female Total Finishers

10/41  Age Group Finishers

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Training in Review

This week’s training was pretty much non-existent.

Mon

30min run (5km) - outdoor with a few long hills added in

20 min yoga

Tue 

30 min yoga

Wed - Fri

No training. 

Sat

20 min walk

Sun

15km Fun Run

I’m a little disappointed for not keeping up with the yoga challenge this week but I am going to return to regular yoga training as of tomorrow. 

Three for Thursday

1. This week has been a shocker. I'm not exaggerating. I feel like I haven't been able to get enough sleep since Sunday night and partially that's my fault. I tell myself that I don't need more than six or so hours of sleep per night but that's a load of crap. If I'm to be training, working full time, commuting each day, and trying to fit in everything else around me I need to sleep. The problem is that I can't find the time to get my eight hours. If I did I'd have to be in bed 9:30pm each evening to get up at 5:30am. That's hard to do when I don't get home till before 6:30pm and want to still fit in some training, relaxation and time with Jarek. I need to fix this because this week I'm feeling like a truck has hit me and it's not getting any better. I'm so glad it's Friday tomorrow.

2. My knee hurts. My heel hurts. My shin hurts. I'm not sure whether it gets better or worse, it's all in my left leg and I can feel the pain radiating to my hip. This is extremely frustrating as I've been careful about not over training and I've been doing a combination of cycling, running, swimming, weights and yoga. I don't know what to do. I've taken two days off exercise. On Sunday, I'm signed up for a 15km race, I really really want to do it but if this pain persists it's not going to be a smart move. I'll have to reassess on Sunday morning.

3. I've been searching for a pair of running shoes and I haven't had much luck in finding a pair. In recent weeks I've tried on dozens. Some have been too narrow, others too wide, most are a supportive shoe. I can't run in a supportive shoe, I need a neutral one. So far, I haven't been able to find a pair that suits my foot. The last shoe I purchased was a cheap New Balance pair that I've been running in for almost six months, they're not perfect but they have served me well, so hopefully over the weekend I can find something similar so that I can wear them in for the marathon coming up in six weeks. What do you look for in a shoe?

Wordless Wednesday

Our first run together - The Human Race, Warsaw PL,  September 2008

Cooking 101 - Pasta Fatta in Casa

Until yesterday I had never made my own pasta from scratch. Why make it when you can get a packet from the supermarket for $1? But with Masterchef being on and watching the contestants make their own pasta I just couldn’t help myself. So, on Saturday we went out and purchased a pasta maker (probably not necessary at all as a rolling pin usually can do the trick). I got all giddy with excitement at the shop that I think they may have overcharged me by $10. 

Sunday night dinner - home made fettucini with garlic, chili, sun dried tomatoes and gorgonzola.

Having never made pasta before I had no idea of the consistency or the texture. Each step was by guess and feel. I checked out half a dozen recipe books and each one had a different pasta recipe from the other. Talk about confusing. So, what did I use? 

600g flour

4 eggs (go the protein packed pasta- although some people don’t add any eggs, apparently the more eggs the harder the pasta will be)

30ml oil (I used macadamia oil as we ran out of olive oil and I hadn’t noticed)

50-100ml water (it said eight tablespoons in one so I guestimated)

I kneaded the flour, eggs, oil and water, and kneaded some more. I tell you, kneading is hard. Triceps, biceps, forearms, abs and legs are all getting worked in the kneading process. Hard yacker if you have to do it for a living or catering for 50 odd guests. I wonder if the Italians always make their own pasta or whether they just pop into the supermarket to buy the prepackaged stuff?

After kneading the dough to the smooth consistency that it should be, I let it sit under a cloth for ten to twenty minutes. A few of the recipes didn’t require any time under the cloth while others claiming anywhere between 40 minutes and a few hours. Yeah right, I’m not waiting that long for my dough to be ready for pasta making. Patience is definitely not one of my virtues. 

Meanwhile Jarek set up the pasta maker, attaching it to the bench. We weren’t sure on the thickness we wanted so again with just guessed and hoped for the best. 

I grabbed the dough, separated it into two and used the rolling pin to make it flat and long. Then it went through the roller in the pasta maker before being put through the cutting process and what was supposed to be fettucini. In the before cooking stages it didn’t really resembled fettucini as much as it should so I’m not sure how I thought it would be fettucini after it was cooked. First timer, that I am. 

While the water was waiting to boil, I heated a fry pan, added a lot of macadamia oil, chopped up garlic and chili and added it in. I got Jarek to grab some herbs from the garden (whatever he could find), and chop them up for me finally before adding to the pan. Finally, I cut up some sun-dried tomatoes (jar version but any sun-dried tomatoes can be used) and added them to the pan. 

The strips of dough went into the water. Usually fresh pasta doesn’t need as much time as the stuff from the shop, however, in this case it did need about 10 minutes in the boiling pot. The pasta turned out thick which meant longer cooking time. Our fettucini were more like obese fettucini. 

Once drained I returned the pasta to the pot, mixed it up with the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, herbs and chilies. The portion I made could easily feed five or six hungry people. I added a bit of gorgonzola on top, just a little as it’s a very strong cheese and one that not everyone might like. Then to finish it off I grated some parmesan. Although I think a green leaf would have looked nice at the top, or even a sprinkling of some mixed herbs or cracked pepper (I have to remember that for next time).

Although my pasta didn’t turn into the fettucini I was aiming for (next time the dough once rolled out needs to be much much thinner), the taste wasn’t too bad. It was definitely fresher than the prepackaged pasta we always buy. 

Will we be making all our pasta from scratch from now on? Umm, probably not. It’s hard work and time consuming. But I will definitely be trying to perfect my fettucini, maybe even giving spaghetti and ravioli a go too. Hopefully, the pasta maker will be a popular tool in our kitchen for special occasions and sometimes just because we feel like it.

Have you ever made your own pasta? 

Training in Review

mi casa training ground (the only thing missing is a treadmill)

Mon 

PM: 20 min yoga

Tue

AM: 15 min yoga

PM: 15 min weights + 15 min yoga

Wed

AM: 20 min yoga

PM: 26 min run (5km) - on the treadmill at the gym at lunch

Thu

AM: 15 min yoga

PM: 35 min cycle (11.3km) - windtrainer whilst watching MasterChef + 15 min yoga

Fri

PM: 26 min run (5km) 

PM: 20 min yoga

Sat:

AM: 23 min swim (1km) + 20 min walk with Kola (1.6km) 

PM: 43 min run (8km) barefoot on the beach (which resulted in a not so lovely blood blister on my big toe, yucky) + 20 min walk with Kola (1.6km) + 30 min yoga 

Sun:

AM: 20 min walk with Kola (1.6km)

PM: 20min weights + 60 min cycle (20.1km) + 30 min yoga


* * * 

Pull ups = well I did have a goal earlier in the year to be able to do 15 pull ups by the end of May. I’m not going to achieve this goal. Not by the end of May anyway. Currently, I can do 5 full pull ups, and I have to say it feels good to be able to do just these five. So let’s go for an easy goal = to be able to do 10 by the end of June, and 15 by the end of July. Who knows I might even surprise myself.

Jarek and I are making pasta today. So excited. I’ll do a recap tomorrow.

Training vs Working Out

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Once upon a time I overused the term exercise and workout. I need to exercise, I’d think. I have to fit in a workout before heading out. We should do some exercise at the weekend. Let’s get in a workout at the gym. What do you associate with these terms? Success. Determination. Achievement. Nope, none of that. When I hear people talking about exercise and their workouts my automatic association is weight loss, boredom or doing an activity they don’t want to do, usually the tone of voice reveals this. There’s no association with achieving fitness goals or finishing your first triathlon, or aiming to get in the top five of a body sculpting competition. 

Training on the other hand projects a different picture. Training means you have a purpose, a goal to work towards. It means knowing what you’re going to do before you hit the road whether it be a hard intervals on the bike, a hill session or an easy run to add up your weekly mileage. 

Mental focus is a significant part of training. With focus you can achieve anything with your training. Today you might not be able to swim more then ten laps of a pool without pausing but by focusing on each session, pushing and challenging yourself you could be swimming a hundred laps of the pool nonstop. Jumping in the pool or hitting the track without a plan may or may not get you the results you’re after, but why take the chance. 

            “Do you know the difference between training and working out? Training is when you have a progressive plan with measurable goals and continual challenges. Working out is anything that makes you sweaty and tired but not necessarily better because it lacks consistency, direction and specificity.” -  Nick Tumminelo 

I have to admit, even today I’m guilty of talking exercise and working out. Each time I do, people tell me, ‘you don’t need to work out,’ or ‘what, are you trying to lose weight?’ These types of remarks and questions are frustrating. With so much attention given to eating disorders, obesity and diets, exercise and working doesn’t always leave positive connotations, and that’s a shame as both are important for good physical and mental health and not just when someone is trying to lose weight. 

Training vs Working Out - which one are you doing?

Wordless Wednesday

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