So much to tell you.......

Here I am with some of the fellow runners from my coaching tem just prior to the start of the HBF Run for a Reason last weekend. This was my debut race and I LOVED it. I had a plan from my coach to run the race at an average pace of 5.35/5.40 mins/km, but overall I raced at 5.34 pace and finished in 66.51! VERY happy with my time. There were over 29,000 runners and walkers on the day! I crossed the line knowing I gave my all and sore, so I knew I had raced as best I could.

My fundraising tally came to $1600. I feel very proud that that $1600 is going to make a small difference to another family in Western Australia who have a sick child in the specialist children's hospital here in WA - Princess Margaret.

I've planned out the next few months with my running.......


Sunday 9th June - 10km run as part of a team for the 31st annual Dampier Tiathlon


Sunday 21st July - 12km at the Chevron City to Surf WA Country tour in Karratha (I hope to run an even quicker 12km)


Sunday 25th August - Chevron City to Surf half marathon in Perth - a very hilly and challenging course.


Sunday 13th October - Melbourne Marathon Festival Half marathon - a flat and quick course!


After a very quiet week for my legs I feel very ready for the next journey of my running adventures, including but not limited too repeats of running up and down the one and only steep hill in Wickham!!!!


Until the hit the road again have fun and love life xxx

Fundraising

I am really excited to report that so far I have raised $1085 for the PMH Foundation. The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation was my chosen benefactor for my HBF Run for a Reason fundraising efforts.

It's a great feeling knowing I have made a $1085 difference to sick children and their families here in Western Australia.

Until I hit the road again, have fun and love life xxx

I LOVE intervals

Good morning bloggers, readers etc!

Its monday and I am feeling GREAT! I had a FANTASTIC interval run this morning. Here is a table showing the break down of my session.





This was my last 'hard' run prior to my 12km HBF Run for a Reason in Perth on sunday. I have a short tempo session on wednesday and a easy 30 minute jog on friday. I normally cross train on my non-running days but I think I might just rest the legs this week and prepare for my fun road race adventure.

Although I did do the MDC I see this as my first real race! I am really excited - a little nervous as well, but the nerves are slowly disappearing and excitement kicking in. I know I have given every run session all I had and a bit more, there has been no 2 and 3 sessions a day of training to prepare for the event and I am eating beautiful healthy food not just fish and broccoli!!!!!!

Not only is sunday exciting for the race, once the race is over and I have recovered I am looking forward to prepping for my first half marathon in August and my second in October!

I'm in the process of reading a very interesting book on my i-pad on marathon and half marathon nutrition. Its a fantastic read so far and when I have finished I will let you all know a little more about what I have read.

Master 8 received a merit certificate at school the other day - VERY proud, Master 3 is such great company - I dont want to speak too soon but I think tantrums are a thing of the past in this house and I take my hat off to you if you have more than 2 children, we had 2 extra's for the whole weekend and 4 was hard work!

Until I hit the road again, have fun and love life xxx

My easy pace 10km today!

Good morning!

This is a snapshot of my 10km run this morning! I took a very different road this morning, and I purposely took this particular road for the constant undulating hills! I think I have got running fit for the flat, now I want to focus on getting running fit for hills.



Even though this doesn't look like much of a change - it changed from only 6 metres above sea level to nearly 30 metres above sea level, and compared to running between 5-10 metres above sea level this was hard work.





And here are my splits for my run.


I am 8 days from my HBF Run for a Reason! Nervous and excited


Until I hit the road again, love life and have fun xxx

Tempo in the dark!

This morning I put on my brand new Petzl Tikka XP headlight and headed out in the dark for my tempo run. I had a tempo run to do today as a pre tester for my HBF run in 10 days time. I ran 5.46 mins/km for 12 mins, 5.37 mins/km for 10 min and then 5.22 mins/km for 8 mins. My coach has suggested a first half (6km) at 5.35 pace and then speed up or hold at that pace for the second half of the race. Excited and nervous!




With my new headlight I was able to take a slightly different road for part of my run now that I could see where I was going, however soon turned around because its very remote and very dark and decided it wasn't the safest option. Living in a small town has its downside in terms of always needing to run the same roads to stay safe and get the required distance in. As my distances increase I am going to need to drive approx 50km to a larger town to be able to run far enough instead of going round and round in circles. There is a highway, however its a heavy haulage road and having trucks with 2-3 trailers on behind going past you at 90-100 km/h is a very unpleasant feeling.

Does anyone have any small town running strategies?

Until I hot the road again, have fun and love life xxx

MDC Karratha

Today I ran my very first race! I ran the 8km Mothers Day Classic in Karratha. I had a great run and loved every minute of the experience. It was such a great feeling to be competing in an event where I wasn't judged or assessed according to someone elses expectations of how I should look! I was racing against my own time, and what a great time that was for me. I ran the 8km with an average pace of 5.33 mins/km with a finish time of 44.30. Not only have I finished my first race I have also run the most number of km in any one week this week - 38.85!

Having my husband and sons there cheering me on was a huge bonus as well. It was hard to wipe the smile off my face.

This race was a 'rehearsal for my HBF Run for a Reason in 2 weeks. There are a couple of things that I will do differently but as for my first race I feel very proud and excited about how it all went!

Until I hit the road again, have fun and love life xxx

Inspired!

First of all its great to be home and Essie is improving at a good rate. He is still in pain but we are able to manage this with much lighter pain medication than we had been using! We have to head back to Perth tomorrow for an appointment at 8.30am on Wednesday for a check up. My fingers are crossed that the surgeon will be happy and that we can return home that very same day.


I had a couple of runs on the weekend. On saturday I ran too late and without proper nutrition. I hit the wall very early and much to my disgust barely ran after the 6km mark. Anyone else might have been happy with 6km but I was incredible disappointed. I headed out in the dark yesterday morning and got the 9km! Much better! Now to increase the speed again. WE are having a VERY long hot summer here with temperatures still 30 degrees over night and reaching the low 40's during the day! This makes for a VERY tough run!


Yesterday I watched the Melbourne Ironman on TV. I felt VERY inspired by these amazing athletes. I will be honest and say that if I could do that in a few years I would be very impressed! For now I am going to settle on a few runs this year.


The first run I will do is the HBF Run for a Reason - I am going to run the 12km. I have set up a fundraising page. I am raising funds for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. They made a difference to our recent extended hospital stay, so I thought for our family it was a good option. Please feel free to pop over to my fund raising page and donate any lose change you might have.


The second run I will do is the Perth Half Marathon in August. This is a race with the Western Australia Marathon Club!


I'm really excited about my year ahead!

xxxx