The Blerch

This was brought to my attention the other day. For me it is very funny because it is so true! The whole cartoon can be found here The Oatmeal

This morning Michael Clease and I tried to get up for a run, I believe the blerch may have been hiding in my mattress. His fat little body plumping it up to make it even more comfortable whilst whispering in my ear about the importance of sleep!
Needless to say the blerch won! Michael Clease is obviously strong, or maybe has a weaker blerch!!

Sutho to surf - race report

Hello hello, I am on a bit of a race high at the moment!
Yesterday I ran my second Sutherland to Surf, we had a great day and I achieved my goal time. 

Prep started on Saturday evening. I planned what I was going to wear, made sure it was clean and made what is becoming my go to pre race carb loading dinner. Pasta, chunks of sausage, vegetables and tomato sauce. Its quick and easy, tasty, easy to knock together if you are staying away from home and something that most people will happily eat. 

Sunday morning we woke at 6:30am and ate 'breakfast of champions' - porridge, banana, a little honey and some chia and sunflower seeds. 
One of Michael Cleases friends came round and we drove to the race, collecting another friend on the way. 
It was cold! We only arrived about 10mins before the start but even then our hands were going numb.

A common complaint for the Sutho to surf is that there is no encouragement to self seed, it means some of the walkers and slower runners end up near the front and some of the faster runners nearer the back, like me! I don't really have a problem with this as I feel the dodging between people is quite a distraction and makes things a little more interesting but I can understand that it is considered by many to be a safety concern. 

We agreed before the race that we not try and stay together so about 50metres in Michael Clease and I took off a little faster. Its fairly down hill at the beginning and pretty fun. 
After about 3km Michael Clease was pulling ahead, looking round occasionally but it became clear that he'd be going faster and so he took off into the crowd. 

I think there were three water stations in total, I only stopped at one. It wasn't very warm so it wasn't an issue. I kept an eye on my watch. I knew I had to do each km faster than 6minutes if I was to achieve my goal of under 1 hour, 5:23 to be exact. I was going pretty well for the first half but into the second the hills seemed to get bigger and my time slowed a little.

Into around 9km there is a big down hill followed by a flat, both times i've done this race I've under estimated the big up hill into the finish. I'm pleased to say I managed to keep quite a steady pace and then a fast finish. 

I finished in 56:57mins, Michael Clease finished in 54:17. I'm still a way off the fastest females time of 37:52 but very happy to have finished in the top 12% of female entrants and top 25% of all entrants. 

(I started it a little while before we crossed the start line
hence the slow beginning)

I ran with my phone and set the mapmyrun app to record my speed. As you can see the race is very much downhill, it really felt more uphill than it looks though!

Goals

I thought it was time that I gave a little update on my goals. Sutho to Surf and City to Surf have both been entered.
My goal for Sutho to Surf is sub 1hr. The race is 11.2km. I make that a 5.26minute kilometers that I need to do. This is quicker than I usually run and so in theory I should have been working on my speed but guess what....I haven't!

Michael Clease and I have also been thinking about another marathon. Looking back we really enjoyed the training and without a large end goal we tend to get a bit slack.
I came up with a little criteria from which to choose a race:

• Near sydney so we don't have to fly or stay in a hotel
• One I haven't done before
• A decent price
• Something fun, I struggle if I get bored
• At the right time if we have a little holiday in September
• Close enough that I should start training now

So far this one is in the lead http://www.fitzroyfallsmarathon.com/ Its a trail marathon so should be fun, not something i've done before but i've had some trail practise and i've heard there is nothing too technical.


I think i'll scrap the Sydney half that I have planned on my schedule and replace it with the Sutherland half. The Sutherland half is a trail race, a little sooner and a little cheaper. Its also a local race so I like to support that.

In other news after a few runs in my new trainers I have to say i'm not in love with them. I feel very conscious about how i'm placing my feet and I don't feel like a smooth runner. I think I will do the Sutho to Surf in my trusty Nike frees and keep testing out the Kinvaras.

After a couple of weeks of unhealthy eating and general chubbiness Michael Clease and I are back on the health band wagon!!

I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling

I've been feeling a little ill recently. I think I might have had very mild food poisoning. I had some left overs and them despite feeling rough I ate the same food again for another meal. So my trainings not been going so well.

To make mysel feel better I bought some new running shoes!

These are the babies. I chose them for four reasons

• The colour (they're actually a little greener than they look)
• The price
• The heel drop (I'll explain below) 
• The brand - as I think I've mentioned in a previous post I enjoyed the book "just a short run around the world". Saucony provided Rosie, the author, with shoes for the run. I like to do my bit by helping companies like this to help other people. 

As the barefoot trend has progressed trainer companies have started (when I say started I mean probably the last four years) selling shoes in the minimalist catagory. As I understand it a barefoot shoe, such as the vibram five finger has a 0mm heel drop. This means that the heel is no higher to the ground than the toes, as if you are wearing no shoes and your toes and heels are both touching the ground. Obviously with barefoot shoes for only have about 3mm of rubber between your toes and the ground and your heels and the ground.
With minimalist shoes you can have a little more rubber and in the case of my Saucony Kinvara there is a 4mm difference between the toe - ground distance and the heel - ground distance.

I tried to find something to explain a little better than I can but I can't! So I hope that makes sense.

They had their first outing on Saturday and so far so good. I wore them on a 7km run and with no socks. This was probably a bit risky for the first time and although they were rubbing a little on the back of my heel by the time I got home I was generally very happy and comfortable in them.

I'll keep you updated on my progress with them.
CK.x