6 months to go...

It's been a few months since my last post. A sign of how hectic my schedule has been this year so far.  Working, Zumba, running, raising a child and I started CPA. Yep I've been busy.

So what have I been up too since my last post.?? Let's see...

Whilst not running, I've been ramping up my swimming this year after competing in the Australian Masters Games last October, the Australian Nationals were held in Adelaide in April, so I was keeping up my swimming training to be able to compete.

Back to my running though.

Dolphin Run - an event held by SARRC was on 5th February.  I had only intended on entering the 5km run and make it a speed event.
Woke up that morning (early!!), the event started at 7.30am ish at Semaphore along the esplanade.  It was raining possibly as hard as it could.  Thoughts went through my head to pull out - it would be silly to run in such extreme conditions (extreme... really?) Anyway that thought didn't last long, I mean what if it was raining in New York, I'm not going to pull out of that.  So I went, the rain didn't ease at all, it was bucketing down the entire run.  It was freezing, and I had a total brain fade and didn't take a jumper or a towel to dry myself with.  I also thought running with my ipod was a good idea.

The rain affected my phone, so therefore stuffed up my run keeper and also wrecked my headphones.  Despite all of this I completed the run in a new PB for me. I think it was the cold, rainy conditions that made me run faster so I could get home quicker.

Pretty proud of my efforts on this run.  There was an older lady that come up to me at the end and thanked me for being her inspiration.  She was getting over a chest infection and was struggling to breath throughout the run and had to stop quite a few times. She had a fast pace so always managed to claw back the distance to me after a short break.  She said I was the inspiration she needed to keep going.  Poor lady! But I felt a sense of yaay-ness for inspiring someone else.

Next event was the Greenbelt half marathon - again put on by SARRC.  SA road runners club for those playing at home.  I completed the 10km even for this as I was always training up to do the half marathon at Barossa - in a few weeks.

But in between Dolphin and Greenbelt, I cancelled my gym membership and bought myself a treadmill for home.  I found I was only using the treadmill at the gym, so why not just get one for home. I get to stay home and can train whenever I liked.

Easter.... We went up the shack as we always do. I did a run along the road from the Shack to Aruma Resort which is a 8km round trip, well that was always my intention, but after a few drinkies the night before it was suggested that I should in fact go further than Aruma and run up the hill part. So I did. Went up the the look out and took some photos, then ran back - all up 9.5km trip.  And at a pretty reasonable pace as well. Felt really great on my legs and no knee or ankle pain during or after.

So then CPA study took over and the running slowed down quite considerably.  Then come Greenbelt.
I'd bought some energy gels as I want to use them for Barossa half, so I thought I'd try one out for Greenbelt.  Took it  10mins before the start and I reckon it kicked in around the 5km mark.  I felt AMAZING. No fatigue, no leg soreness, and also felt strong with my breathing.  I had decided ages ago to turn off the coaching on my runkeeper as it was doing my head in, so I had no idea what my pace was. But wanted to complete in an hour (so a 6min/km pace) as that's about where I had left off over a month ago.  Was pretty pleased to firstly not have stopped during the run, but also to come in at 1hr 1min.  Got home, put my skins on, legs felt fantastic afterwards.

So... Barossa half marathon... yes 21.1 fricken kilometres is next.  2 weeks Sunday to be exact.  Not worried about it at all though.  I've done the distance before, and I'm really not worried about times anymore.  I have an idea what I think I can do it in. But I'm not going to get all emotional if I go slower.   My lead up hasn't been ideal.

Downloaded a training program from ASICS, that I'll commence after Barossa.  Looking forward to the next 6 months of training actually. It's getting closer and starting to become a reality now.  Starting to sink in... yes in 6 months I'll be running one of the worlds biggest and most prestigious marathons.

On the fundraising front... first event is next Saturday (19th May) Quiz Night at the Morphett Vale Football Club.  Have lots of people coming and have been blown away by the generosity of the business's that have kindly donated items for the raffle.

Til next time... and it won't be so long I promise.
NY Kel
xx

1 month in ....

So January was a pretty busy month!  Hadn't done a lot of actual running towards the end of 2011, and with Resolution Run looming in the 2nd week of January I had my work cut out to get back my running pace.

I officially started following a 20 week program for running a half marathon.  Which initially starts off with 3 runs per week at a nice casual pace - so you can still talk.... cos you really want to be having a full on conversation with someone whilst you are running??  The first run was probably the worst - I'd not run for a period of time for a while, but I got through it okay.  Surprising what you are capable of when you have a target time or distance in mind.

Next run was Resolution Run at the Adelaide Zoo on 13th Jan.  7.5km - which turned out to be 7.8km because they had to change the finish as they thought too many people around the zoo would freak the animals out or something.?  They didn't tell us this until it actually finished.  Whilst I've always put really high expectations on myself for running time, I did my best pace per km that I'd done in a longer distance run - and that is even with 2 months off getting over my knee injury so I was pretty pleased with my efforts.  But I will say... I do not like running in the early evening.  It may have been that I hadn't hydrated properly during the day - not sure?

Here is a couple of photos from the day:

 Simone and I before the run

Sally, Jodie and I - clearly after the run! Shredded!

Since this event, I've just been concentrating on getting some km's on the board with my training.  I also participated in the Facebook KM challenge a few of my friends were doing in January.  Basically 'like' my status and I'll dedicate a km for you to be completed by 31st Jan.  I ended up with 100km to complete and I agreed to do this either as a run, bike, swim or walk.

100km easily completed and I reckon it actually helped boost my cardio fitness back to where it was and more so since before christmas.

The proof was at a SARRC event on Sunday 5th Feb at Semaphore - the 5 or 10km Dolphin Run.  And boy were we dolphins!!.  It was pouring with rain and so good to see everyone still out there slogging it out.  I entered the 5km event as a chance to test my speed.  And was surprised to have knocked 40sec of my per km pace.

No events lined up for a while, I might try my hand at a mini triathlon at the end of March for something different, otherwise the next 'event' will be the Greenbelt marathon on 29th April. As I'm building up to run the Barossa as a half, I'll enter this event doing 10km.  By then 10km should be a breeze!  Until then, I'll keep slogging it out on the treadmill and the pavement.  I'm going to start incorporating some strength training as well to mix things up a bit.

On the fundraising side of things, I've booked in my first event.  A Wine Tasting evening which will be held at The Griffins Head on Tuesday 20th March.  For a minimal entry fee, you can come along and taste wines from about 4 different wineries, with the option of buying full glasses at a ridiculous price per glass.  Tuesday is also Steak night at the Griffins so why not stay and have a steak with your lovely glass of wine.  Raffles on the night to win some cool wine prizes.  Hope to see you all there.  Thanks to Drew from the Griffins. 

A Quiz night in the southern suburbs is also being organised and will be towards the end of April.  I have an AMAZING photography raffle available on that night! You don't want to miss out it!!  More details to follow for both.

There is no chance I could do any of this without an amazing support network.  Trent - for being the parent so I can get out the house to train as much as I am. Also for supporting me taking on my Zumba classes to earn the bucks to go towards our trip to America.  Simone Harvey - for doing heaps and heaps!! Narelle Smith - your assistance with the Wine night has been fantastic and also your trip notes for America!  Brandon Scammell for making a few phone calls for me!  There are so many people to thank! And I appreciate everything that anyone has done for me so far.

Til next time
NY Kel
xx

And so it begins

For those that don't already know, yes I am competing in the 2012 ING New York Marathon and will be representing the Heart Foundation (so yes that means fundraising!)

Wow - that is actually THIS YEAR.  It's always seemed so far away, and it still is, but to now be able to say it's this year is beginning to become a bit daunting.

So I guess the time has come to commence training.  I've decided that I won't actually do any full marathons in Australia before heading over to NY.  I had originally thought that it might be a good idea to do the Adelaide Marathon full 42.2km in August, but I have since changed my mind.

A good friend Tim Scarman, has been kind enough to send me some half and full marathon training diaries where you take 20 weeks to train for a half or full marathon.  The training concentrates on the duration of running rather than the distance.  You don't need to do a marathon in training to do a marathon - you just have to be able to run for 4hrs or something ridiculous like that.

I joined the SA Road Runners club towards the end of 2011 and penciled a lot of events into my diary.  I'll now go through these again and co-ordinate with my training diary which ones will be most beneficial for my training to compete in.  One of their events in May is the Barossa marathon, so commencing the 2nd week of January, I will follow the 20 week training program for a half marathon which will bring me to 27th May - where I will compete in the Barossa half marathon.

After a 2 week break and re-evaluation, I'll then commence the 20 week full marathon program which will lead me up to the week of the New York, which is scheduled for Sunday 4th November.

The training program will commence with 3 runs per week, 2 of which at a nice easy pace running for 40mins, then the third being the longer run, building up length of time each week.

At 4-5 week intervals throughout the program will be rest weeks where the training is backed off slightly - these usually follow a planned event - so as I said before I'll have to go back through the SARRC calendar and see which events line up with my training the best.

I will start the year off with an event though.  The Resolution Run on Friday 13th Jan, 7.5km which starts and end in the Adelaide Zoo.  It's a late arvo/evening run, commencing at around 5.30pm.  I've not done a whole lot of running in the last couple of months, getting over a slight niggle in my knee and also illness over the christmas period.  So I don't hold any expectations for this run, although it's a short distance, so I'll just use it as one of my training sessions.  But it will be nice to be in a competitive atmosphere, hopefully the weather gods are nice to everyone that day.

There are no other events in January that I plan to do, so for this month I'll concentrate on my training schedule, I don't doubt it is going to be exhausting initially to take up so much running, but I am looking forward to the challenge.... not so much having to buy new sneakers every couple of months though.

On the fund raising side of things, I've already commenced with Chocolate drives around the place, which will continue throughout the year.  Thanks so far to Simone Harvey, Trent Levi and Graham Glendenning for selling chocolates for me.

I've got some great events lined up with year, including a Wine tasting night, Zumbathon and a Quiz Night, so watch our for these events and I hope to see you all at one to support my Heart Challenge.

Until the next post....  thanks for reading

NY Kel

xx