Great Ocean Road marathon 2013 - Race Report

We woke at 5am to kindly be taken to the airport by Michael Clease's brother for our 7am flight. The woman on the flight next to me was very irritating, she kept knocking me with her elbow, flipping pages of her book very loudly, texting!!! and was writing in three different diaries each slightly larger than the last! It sounds so petty now but when you are cramped in a little box its very frustrating.

When we landed it became clear that a lot of people were heading to the running festival. Lots of legging, trainers and I even heard one woman in the toilet talking about wee colour (as in trying to check it to make sure she was fully hydrated). 

We collected our hire car and set off. Michael Clease was keen to check out Bell beach, location of the surfing movie Point Break. We did briefly but it was cold and windy so we were quickly on our way. 

As we got onto the great ocean road we soon saw the amazing views that it is so famous for, rolling green hills, crumbling cliff edges and blue foamy shorelines. 

The day was cold with on/off showers and we checked a number of different weather websites praying that the conditions would improve for Sunday. 

Our accommodation, the Claerwen Retreat, was slightly out of Apollo Bay, up a windy, gravelly, hilly road but once we saw the amazing views I was happy to see we'd made a good choice. 

We decided to make dinnner in our room and have a very quiet evening. Michael Clease knocked up a quick pasta with sausages, veg and tomato sauce. Thanks to the early morning I was falling asleep at 9pm while watching Harry Potter. 

View from our room at Claerwen retreat, it really doesn't do it justice.

We woke at 5am for a second day in a row, dressed, ate some porridge and drove down to the coach collection for a 6:15am pickup. 

When entering online you could specify that you'd like a coach trip from the finish line in Apollo Bay to the start line in Lorne. There was I expecting one coach maybe three quarters full but with the help of the half marathoners there must have been about eight coaches waiting. 

We arrived at the start line at 7amish which I thought was a little early but by the time we'd been for a wee, drunk a Gatorade, pinned on our numbers, gone for another wee and put our bag in the bag van it was nearly time to start. 

Just before the start

We started slow, in training Michael Clease has been setting off quite fast and I was very conscious to take it easy and not get carried away as I have in past events. We decided to have our gels at every 10km and so the provided energy drink at every 5km. This strategy worked well and thanks to some new gels I have discovered called Torq I was actually looking forward to using them. There isn't much to say about the run, the uphills were quite tough, the downhills were very welcome. At around 30km I began to struggle but that is to be expected I think. We reached the marathon mark at 4:24, roughly a ten minute pb for me so I was chuffed. I think we saw Toadie from Neighbours which was pretty exciting for me! Michael Clease had a little banter with him.

Due to the location of the towns this marathon is a little different to most in that they give you a time for the marathon and then you have to continue to the finish line totalling 45km. I was originally worried that this would be a mental struggle and once I got to the marathon mark I would not have the motivation to keep running. This turned out not to be the case, I had mentally broken down the race into nine 5km portions which I think helped, and we crossed the finish line in 4:37. 

Originally we had planned to grab a beer and some food straight after but we really felt like going back to our room for a shower and a rest. 

Much to his reluctance and my encouragement Michael Clease showered his legs with cold water before the hot shower, I did the same after. I don't know if it was due to this or the beers after but we pulled up quite well the next day. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the race, it was really well organised, the views were spectacular, the crowd at the end was really great and I think having Michael Clease with me really gave me encouragement. I'd definitely do it again, maybe not next year due to the cost in getting and staying there but if you live near by its a must!

Now I am just waiting for the official photographs.

Chubby Katie.x

The thin end of the wedge

Well I am at the thin end of the wedge now in terms of my marathon training. 
I'm not sure that phrase is entirely suitable for me. I think in race terms it usually is used to describe the elite athletes rather than the middle of the roaders, the back of the packers but what I mean is I am in my taper and counting down the hours almost till the gun goes off.

Yesterday Michael Clease and I did our last training run. I've got to say I felt really good. It was only 10km but we managed to do it in a decent time and pretty much negative split.

In case you don't know what negative splitting is its when you do a race faster in the second half than the first. The logic being that most people go out too fast and then can't keep it up, if you negative split you have "saved enough in the tank" to power through to the finish line. Negative splitting means that you have paced yourself well, haven't been swept up the atmosphere and should finish feeling strong.

The last two marathons I have done I definitely haven't negatively splitted (splat?). If you've read my race report of the Sydney marathon you'll know I got carried away and started running with the sub 4hr group! This time I feel I have learnt so lessons, my strong run yesterday has left me feeling positive. All I have to do is make sure Michael Clease doesn't get carried away (I think he is a faster runner than me) and keep my fingers crossed that the forecast rain doesn't show itself till after midday!

I thought of a couple more tips recently. These are Chubby Katie tips rather than Real Buzz but they are really common sense. 

• Cut your toe nails/have a pedicure a week before the race.

Its a good idea to have neat short nails before the race, hopefully in an effort to keep as many of them as possible! Cutting them a week before hand means if you cut them a little close they shouldn't be sore on race day

• Tie your shoe laces well

Oh how I have made this mistake! Many a time i've had to re-tie my laces. Chances are they'll come undone at the start ruining your momentum. Theres a chance they might come undone nearer the end, by then bending down to tie then might create its own issues!

• Do a little warm up jog before you start

The main reason I do this is not for warming up but to make sure everything I am wearing is comfortable. As discussed in the last rules you shouldn't wear anything new but you might not have worn all your items together before. For example I will be wearing a running belt to carry gels, this sits at different positions round my waist depending on the shorts I am wearing. My hair is also sometimes an issue, doing a little job will ensure its fixed in place. I cannot stand bits of hair that keep falling into my face!!

Well thats it! One more day till the big day. I shall be sure to take lots of photos and give a full race report.

Chubby Katie.x

Marathon tips part 2

Ooh so I've just been looking at the posts that I started drafting and never finished. Back in April 2011!!! I wrote a marathon tips one and never finished maraton tips two. With less than a week to go before my next one it seemed like a good time to share it.
Just a reminder that I found these tips on www.realbuzz.com

• Resist the urge for a toilet break

Yes I reckon this is a good idea. Most the time it is just nerves making you think you need a wee or looking for a reason to take your mind off the race. You should also resist the urge to drink for the sake of it. If you have planned your nutrition and hydration well you should know exactly how much to drink. A trick I am trying this time is to hydrate a lot on the days leading up but then not too much on the day.

• Do a body scan during the race 

I've heard this before. Chrissie Wellington suggests doing it. Essentially you just cast you mind over each part of your body, make sure you aren't tensing, that you are relaxed and sticking to the form you have been practising.
I have tried this a few times on longer runs. Usually I will only remember ones but hey thats better than not doing it!
Start with your eyebrows and work all the way down to your little toe, if nothing else it should take your mind off giving up for a few minutes!

• Stick to what you know

Oh this is a biggy! Never do a run in any new clothing or with new nutrition that you haven't tried in training. If you've practised it or worn it there is less margin for error on race day. It can be tempting to treat yourself to something new and shiny with the aim to look your best for the big day but if after 10minutes your new shoes start rubbing you'll be kicking yourself.

• Watch your running step

This just means to watch where you are going. Look out for things like plastic cups, especially round drinks stations, gel packets and curbs. I feel over when I did the city to surf a few years ago. I got swept along with the rush, some guy was messing around in front of me and over I went. 
Try to stay out of the big crowds, don't hug the curbs too much and don't go faster than you have prepared for. 

• Talk to yourself while you run

This is an interesting one, one that I haven't really tried.  Usually its more like my body telling my brain "this this is crazy, you could easily stop, whats the point of putting me through this pain". I guess the trick is to tell yourself the opposite. "This is good for you, don't give up you've trained so hard, the pain is small compared to the disappointment you'll feel if you stop half way!"

• Enjoy the race!

Well this might be easier said than done. You've trained for this for ages so may as well enjoy it right! Really savour the highlights of the run, whether its running accross the harbour bridge, tower bridge or just the beautiful Great Ocean road scenery.

Compression digression

Oh my goodness! I have just looked up compression clothing on Wikipedia and it seems to know even less than I do. I especially liked this line:

In those situations, athletes wear compression shorts under the skirt so if they fall over and their skirts ride up, their underwear will not be exposed. 

Michael Clease has just purchased some some and I don't think this was his reasoning! (I shall endeavour to get a photo!)

Anyway I next went onto the Australian Sports commission website. It seems there hasn't been a lot of conclusive research into the benefits of compression wear but of course the manufactures are raving about it.
Compression wear is regularly used in hospitals and by frequent flyers to reduce the risk of blood clots in legs. Here are some of the potential benefits:

• enhancing blood circulation to peripheral limbs
• reducing blood lactate concentration during maximal exercise bouts
• enhancing warm-up via increases in skin temperature
• increasing vertical jump height
• improving repetitive jump power
• reducing muscle oscillation upon ground contact
• increasing torque generated about joints, improving performance and reducing the risk of injury, for example, assisting the eccentric action of the hamstring at the end of the swing phase in running
• enhancing recovery following strenuous exercise by aiding in the removal of blood lactate and improving subsequent exercise performance
• reducing the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness in the days following strenuous exercise
• increasing feelings of positive leg sensations both during and following strenuous exercise

For my birthday in September I received some 2XU leggings and I wore them after my second marathon in Sydney. I'm not sure if I recovered any quicker but I must say my legs felt much better when I put them on. I find the "reducing muscle oscillation" an interesting concept, my understanding is that the muscles don't move around as unnecessarily when they are hugged tight in these, or wobble factor as I like to refer to it.  When I put them on my legs felt much more secure and firmer. Its a strange thing to describe but it felt good!

The Aus sport website also sites positively influencing psychological factors which may well turn out to be the main benefit. Still I shall duly put them on after my third marathon on Sunday and be content in the fact that if nothing else the compression gives you a more purt bum!

Let me know if you have any compression garments and what you think.

CKx

For reference here is the Aus sport website: http://www.ausport.gov.au/sportscoachmag/sports_sciences/compression_garments_do_they_influence_athletic_performance_and_recovery

Homeward bound

I struggle to get enough mileage in (funny how I still call it mileage even though I train in kilometres!), often things come up on the weekend and it throws out your plan. When you have three hours allocated to that run it can be tricky to reschedule. That happened this weekend, Sure I maybe didn't try as hard as I could but things just kept getting in the way.

That's why I have started running home from work. I live around 24km from work and often in the past I have gotten off the train a few stops earlier and run the last 6 or so kms. Over the last few months Michael clease and I have been getting off half way and running 16km. Last week though we decided to run the whole way! It was tough, we hadn't eaten much since lunch, we were relying on water fountains, it was dark and we didn't have dinner till 9pm but the suckers for punishment that we are, we plan to do it again tomorrow.

We will go a little more prepaid through. I'll pack up some snacks for us to have through out the afternoon, I have a little head torch that'll I'll strap round my arm and i'll carry some water.

Wish me luck!

My bottle belt is similar to this but the bottles face downwards. I only had
three bottles  but lost one on a longer run one day so now i'm down to two :(

Hiatus over?

Well what a hiatus this has been. Over six months I have been away, after all the promises I made to blog twice a week, shame on me.

I am now back on the training wagon, and in theory on the blogging wagon.

I have just been to Bali, it was lovely but involved pretty much no exercise. The thing that did inspire me though was I finally got round to reading Chrissie Wellingtons autobiography.

As you will know if you've read my other blog posts I am a big fan of hers! She is obviously an amazing athlete and comes across as so down to earth. 

A while ago I came up with the theory (it may be a well know one but not one that I have read about) that people have different levels of addiction. Not just to drugs, alcohol and the usual things but it can occur in all areas of life, to work, to shopping, fast food. There are a number of athletes that I've come across who have been drug addicts and managed to turn their lives around to become ultra runners, essentially they seem to swap the addiction to an addiction to exercise.

Chrissy Wellington seems like one of these people, I think that’s what makes her so successful. Unfortunately I am not. I rarely have a need to go for a run. I enjoy it and often feel in the mood but if someone told me I couldn't run today I wouldn't break out into a cold sweat and get anxious. I guess its really a healthier way to be but it means I am unlikely to become a champion athlete.

But enough of my ramblings, in two weeks time I am running the Great Ocean road marathon. Its actually 45km which, although I can't find much saying so, means its an ultra marathon! Michael Clease has agreed to run this one with me which is very exciting and has made the training runs much more fun. 

Its apparently an "undulating" run but I've been reliably informed that the scenery acts as quite a distraction from the hills.

This weekend I plan to do my last over 30km run and then its onto taper. My alcohol intake has been limited and I'm eating fairly healthily. I'm feeling good and excited for the little trip away. 

Beautiful GOR http://www.victoria.visitorsbureau.com.au/

One Tough Mudder

Tough Mudder - have you heard of it? Its a mud run but the mother of all mud runs, hence the name. Well I'll be doing one tomorrow.

After my marathon my legs were sore, I wasn't injured just found walking up and down stairs tricky. Two days of compression tights, two massages, a cold bath and a warm spa bath and they are back to normal. Just in time for the mudder. Trouble is I am now fighting with a cold grrr!


I reckon i'll be ok, I'm not going to race it and its only 19km - a cinch compared to the marathon. Sure it has some obstacles like burning hay bales and electric wires but the only thing i'm really worried about is the monkey bars. I have poor upper body strength! and below them is ice cold water.

Well I shall update you on Sunday as to whether I succeeded or failed. In the mean time the below video made me laugh and summed up Monday for me pretty well.

CK.x

Sydney marathon race report

Last Sunday I completed my second marathon. Here is my race report:

I didn't do as much training as I should have. Part of me is using moving house as an excuse but I know really that it only really used up two days of my life and I had plenty of time to train. I'm just a bit lazy sometimes. Plus I find it a bit of a waste of my weekend to spend 3 hours pounding the pavement, its not that I struggle its just I think of the other things I could be doing. I guess if its an interesting pretty route you don't resent it as much but if you are covering 30+km its tricky to do it all in a scenic environment.

Michael-clease decided he was happy to come with me and busy himself while I was running and I was happy to have the company on the journey. I got up at 5:45am and had my usual breakfast of champions,
Porridge, banana, sunflower seeds, chia seeds and honey, and we left at 6:15am. We arrived at the start line at about 7:15 for the 7:30 start. The website had said arrive an hour early, I know from experience that thats not normally necessary unless maybe theres a big group of you and it takes a long time to get organised. 15mins was maybe not quite enough time as I didn't have time to go to the toilet!

So after just a few minutes we were off. The first part of the run is over the harbor bridge, its a great start! Great views, you feel happy to be alive and wonder if this is one of the great races on earth. I found myself next to the 4hr15 pace group and ran along happily. Little did I know Michael-Clease was watching from the foot path! I was going strong, the 4:15 group didn't seem as strong so I sped up a little. I ended up near the 4:00 group. I dared myself to wonder if this could turn into a sub 4:00 marathon, sure my training hadn't been that fast but i'd carb loaded and this was my second one!
As we headed up Oxford street 4:15 pace group caught me, turns out I was struggling a little already. I must have been about 8km in.

We reached Centennial park and boy that was tough! Lots of rounds and there and back agains. It did give us a chance to see the leaders which is always inspiring and give them a little clap as they came by, I doubt they appreciate it really but we tell ourselves they do.

Midway though the park at around the 21km mark I wondered if I really could finish this run. It is a long walk back to the finish line so I had little option but to keep going for now. If I am still going by the 30km mark, I thought to myself, I won't give up.

I think it was towards the end of the Centennial section, 28k, that the 4:30 pace group overtook me (hangs head in shame). I persevered through Hyde park and into the Rocks. At around 32km I could see Circular Quay, my hip was a little sore. I moved over the edge of the road limping a little, I started to stretch out my hip. It didn't need it. The shame of giving up was too much to bare, I couldn't tell my friends that I had quit. The only good excuse was an injury so I was playing along in my faux injury charade.
I snapped out of it! I have put in hundreds of kms of training to give up 10 from the end!

Little did I know the next 8 where the most boring 8 you will ever run! Lucky I didn't know! I slogged it out, running for 5minutes and allowing myself 1min of walking in between, I stuck to the shade as by this time it was nearing midday and getting up to 22C.
Finally I made the 40km mark. I managed to run the rest. The section round circular quay was amazing, crowds were cheering my on, I felt like an elite athlete. After 4hrs 42mins I crossed the finish line, unlike my first marathon I vowed I would be back again! And this time it would be a PB!

Sorry Marathon-photos I do plan to buy the official one but just haven't yet

Bad smell

Well I bet you didn't expect to see me here ever again! But like a bad smell I keep wafting back.

Like a difficult run I am going to set myself small targets in my blogging life and just try to get to the next one without giving up.

• Blog at least twice a week
• Blog continually from now until Christmas, thats only 26 posts!!
• Enter a few events to give me something to aim for
• Take better pictures - wow the pictures on here are sucky! Composition chubby katie!
• Get creative in the kitchen - design a healthy receipe a week

Well I think that is enough challenges for now.

Let me briefly update you with my goings on since my last post (February). I have run a second marathon - race report to come, I have moved house. Well I guess thats about it, explains why I have not blogged much, my life has not been that interesting!

Ciao for now.

Chubby Katie

Appy days

I went for a run today. It's been a while I'm afraid. As usual my exercise comes in bursts! But today I was feeling livelier.
Anyway I'm still not that familiar with the area and if I want to do a longer run and not just go there and back on the main roads I have to plot my route first.
So today I started plotting on mapmyrun.com and I realised it has an app. Unfortunately the app doesn't seem to allow you plot a route before you leave but I guess you don't need to if you have the computer. It does however track your route using gps and tell you your speed. There are probably lots of apps that do this, including the Nike plus, but this one is free and doesn't require purchase anything extra. Of course it is also handy for me to be able to pull out my iPhone if I am not sure which way to go!
So I can tell you I ran for 34.50mins, covered 5.21km and had a pace of 6.43min/km. I know I know its not fast! But I am jousting getting back into it after some illness and some laziness.

I've been making some muesli bars recently. There are lots of recipes out there but this one suits me quite well. The basic recipe can be found here http://ohsheglows.com/2012/01/20/on-the-glow-basic-oatmeal-squares/ but I've adadpted it a little.
I use one cup of oats, blended to oat flour and then one cup of untoasted muesli. This way the the nuts and dried fruit is already included. Instead of using a banana I used half a mango cut into very small pieces. I also used honey rather than syrup as I didn't have any. They are not really sweet bars but once you get past thinking of them like usual overly sweetened shop bought bars I find they are pretty tasty.

Apologies for the less than perfect picture!

Banana lollies

I saw a thing in a magazine recently saying how good frozen bananas are. I'm a pretty big fan of bananas anyway and apparently they get sweeter when they are frozen.

I think in America they do frozen bananas but they cover them in chocolate and sprinkles and all kinds of (tasty) unhealthy stuff.

It got me thinking about making ice cream from then and putting it in those plastic lolly makers. So I blended together 2 bananas, a teaspoon of peanut butter, a few splashes of milk and some chocolate powder and heres the result. It was pretty tasty, it's worth experimenting with proportions and I might add some honey to sweeten them or some blackstrap molasses when i finally get hold of it to up my iron intake. It's a pretty tasty post run treat on a hot day :)

The old Iron issue

Iron has been something on my mind a bit for the past year. I consider myself quite a naturally tired person who needs at least 8 hours sleep every night to function properly, so my fatigue since i've stopped eating meat (well cut down significantly) hasn't caused me too much concern. Put my mum, dad, sister and me on a train for more than 20minutes and we'll all be asleep!

I probably should go to the doctor and have my iron levels tested but I tend to think if I am careful to eat things high in iron then I should be ok. So when I came across this article and recipe I took note:

http://lavamagazine.com/training/plates-not-pills-iron/#axzz1iSvEZ4oK
http://lavamagazine.com/training/recipe-iron-poppers/#axzz1gGrJgr1X

I think I have mentioned before about my reluctance to take vitamins and pills. My logic is that they mostly contain things that with a balanced diet you should get anyway, unless of course you have any specific medical conditions.

Unfortuntely I am still struggling to source any blackstrape molasses but I will let you know how I go when I get some and manage to make these babies!

Katie.x

Some piccies

Its been a while since I posted any pictures and since my healthy eating and cooking is going quite well I thought it was a good time to share some images of the recipes i've been knocking up.

Healthy falafel made from pistachios and baked rather than fried. The recipe called
chickpeas but I had borlotti beans opened so I gave them a try! I'll be making them up
using some sauces and lettuce leaves instead of pita.

Mushroom and peach burger with guacamole and home made sweet potato fries.
This was super tasty! And Micheal-Clease loved the sweet potato fries. And yes
that is a party popper left over from NYE!

I got both these recipes from another new site i've found. Its www.greenkitchenstories.com  Check it out they have lots of tasty vegetarian recipes.

I'm trying hard to source all my ingredients from small independent shops and farmers markets but it takes some work. The pistachios, for example, where rosted and salted as thats all the local grocers had. I rinsed them quickly to remove excess salt and didn't add an extra.

Yesterday Michael-Clease and I went for a long cycle ride. It was quite tough as I haven't been riding for ages and body was not used to it. We also went for a surf but the waves weren't so good. I think I still worked my shoulders though as they are aching today!

Ciao

A fresh start

Happy new year!  I'm excited about this year. Despite waking with a hangover I do feel that's it's going to be a good one.

Over the last month my health and fitness has been a little neglected. Too much wine has been drunk, too many chocolates have been eaten and I am generally looking unhealthy, feeling fatter and am pretty moody. 
Now it 2012 that's all gonna change! Theres been a lot on the new recently about new years resolutions. How unsuccessful they are. I think the statistic was something like 40% of people fail before February and 95% before the end of the year. This is why I have decided to have new year mantras. Little sayings to remind me of the way I want to be living. 

The first mantra is finish what you started. I have a number of courses and little projects hanging around waiting to be finished, this year I want get them all done and if I start something new persiver until its complete. 

 The second is be more respectful. This originally was talking about the planet and my keeness to be more green but i should use it in all aspects of my life  The green bit came about when we went to visit Michael-cleases grandparents over christmas. The live in a big rural property which has no rubbish collection. They have to find other methods of deposing of it, either putting it on the compost, incinerating it or driving it to the local rubbish dump. Putting rubbish in a bin outside our house it is easy to forget how much we through out where it ends up! My aim to be greener will involve trying buy things with less packaging, using less plastic bags and shopping around rather than at the big supermarkets (this one might not really help the environment but it's still something I'm keen to try). 

My third mantra is glow from the inside. I stole this phrase from a blog I've just discovered www.ohsheglow.com. I've decided to really concentrate on my diet this January and hopefully some of it will carry on through the rest of the year. I want to not drink alcohol, not eat meat, eat as little dairy as I can and generally eat super healthily. I also plan to get back on the exercise bandwagon!

Anyway I started my morning with quite a hangover  :( some definite healthy eating was needed! On the Oh she glows website there is a link to it's sister site Green Monster Movement. The green monster is a smoothie that uses greens such as kale or spinach so I knocked myself up one of them.  I added spinach, chia seeds, banana, soy milk and some water and whizzed it all up. It doesn't sound too tasty but as the banana has such a strong taste compared to the spinach it was actually quite tasty. 
Given my hangover that's about all I've managed today but as you can see all the plans are in place for a better me. 

Chubby Katie. X

Words from a negatron

It's not been a great week. I have struggled to get up every morning. I've had a back ache for most the week and can't figure out why. Due to this I cancelled my sprint baby. I also slept really badly and missed my alarm to get me up to volunteer at the kurnell triathlon. I'm sorry to the organisers if they happen to read this.   I went for a run in my tri suit today and have decided it's too small! It gives me a bit of a wedgie which isn't going to look great in a triathlon.   I did pretty much ever thing wrong for my run today. It was about 28c. I had two coffees in the morning and no water! I wore clothes over my tri suit so I over heated. And to top it off I decided to run at noon. All in all it was a terrible run and I came home feeling terrible.  I've drunken too much and eaten badly and it has to stop.  That is all negative chubby Katie has to say. I'll be back when I am more positive. X

Oh lovely sleep

As you know well I struggle to get out of bed in the mornings, I generally consider myself a morning person and rarely sleep longer than 8:30. But I really struggle to get up at 6am. The other day I found an iPhone app that claims to wake you up when you are in the lightest stage of sleep, and hence more gently and leave you feeling
fresher and less tired. It works by monitoring your movement, I think the more you move the less deep sleep you are in. You then set a 1/2 hour window and it will choose when to wake you up. Well I set it last night. I can't say I woke up much easier but the graph it plotted was very interesting!
Although I'm not sure its wise to sleep with your phone next to your head so I don't think I'll make it a regular thing.

Sprint baby is less than a week away and I feel very unprepared. I went for a run on Saturday and it was tough. I still plan to give it go but don't fancy my chances of a good time. I'm considering swimming in a pool just so I have somewhere safer to leave my bike. So it's either 19 laps of the ocean pool or 75 of the regular pool. I will also aim to start quite early, maybe 6ish. Not only does it mean there will be less traffic on the road but also I can do other
things during the day and maybe even go back to bed after ;)


I still haven't heard back about volunteering at the Kurnell triathlon. If your reading this organisers your slack! I will still go and watch on sunday but I'm not going to chase them up, at least it will mean I don't have to get up at 4:30am!


Chubby Katie. X

Fun run

I went on a great run on Sunday! Michael-clease and I often run on Cronulla beach on Sunday afternoon. This Sunday the sand felt firmer than normal so we were able to go a little further.

Michael-clease was listening to his ipod but my headphones have broken so I had to run oh naturale, some might say that was the advantage?! 

Anyway we ran for 15min before Michael-clease checked on the time and I was forced to head back. The sun was setting and it was beautiful!

I have decided on my next marathon! Despite vowing after my first one never to do it again! I have decided on the Sydney runnning festival one on 16th September, 7 days after my 20th birthday! It will be a challenge to do it so close to my birthday but I think as long I as I train plenty before hand it should be ok. Eeeee I'm excited!!! http://www.sydneyrunningfestival.com.au/ 

Chubb chubb.

Happy Halloween

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday night. Lots of fun in fancy dress, Michael-clease and I went as Batman and Robin! We were asked to take a carved pumpkin (prizes for the best).

After a couple of grueling hours heres the result, mines on the right:

Sadly I didn't win the prize but I was left with lots of pumpkin flesh. I decided to make myself a pumpkin smoothie ready for a post run snack. I took my inspiration from the wonderful Tri Marni http://tinyurl.com/6dmewcs

Unfortuntely I had no whey powder, ice, celery, cashews, flaxseed oil or chocolate. Instead I added a few sunflower seeds and a teaspoon of honey. I cooked the pumpkin in the microwave for about 5mins and then blended it all together.

I reckon its either an acquired taste or better the way Marni suggests but it wasn't that tasty! I'm sure it was quite good for me but I struggled to finish the whole thing.

Luckily Marni has posted another smoothie receipe with pumpkin puree http://tinyurl.com/6jgbas5 This one has apple and peanut butter in as well so I think that'll be a bit tastier!

Phew Lew

Recently I've been feeling pretty old, I think it might be because I turn 30 next year! I keep thinking of all the thinks I am too old to do. I am too old to become a doctor, I am too old to wear tops that show my stomach (although I don't have a flat enough stomach anyway), i'm too old to become a professional sports woman and I'm too old to go to raves (without looking like one of thoughts crazy people).

But then the other day I heard something about the oldest guy to complete this years Kona (apparently another guy just a few months older has completed it in the past). He's called Lew Hollander and is 81! How crazy is that. He didn't do it in any recorded breaking time but the fact his he had to be pretty fast even to qualify. I really hope I am that fit when I am his age, of course being retired must help. You wouldn't have to compete with hundreds of other people running by the beach before work and you could run at the warmest part of the day in winter. Hmm maybe I have just convinced myself I want to be older rather than younger! Heres an article about him written before his latest Kona http://ironman.com/columns/ironmanlife/matthew-dale-profiles-the-amazing-80-year-old-ironman-finisher#axzz1bvqrUmuC

Anyway inspired by Lew I have signed myself up to a nutrition course at the local community college, I can still work towards a career in health even it's not a doctor. I'm pretty excited about it. It's  a distance course so I can fit it in with work and it has a section on sports nutrition which should come in handy. I am conscious about what I eat and often look at the little table on the back of products but i'm excited to really be able to take the information and make informed decisions. Hopefully I'll be able to give my readers some handy tips too.

I actually got up for a run this morning. I would like to thank michael clease for encouraging me. He put his running clothes next to the bed and set his alarm for 6am. I very nearly tried to convince him to stay in bed but then something click and I sprung out of bed!   It was only a 20min one but I felt so much better for it and treated myself with a slice of toast after my bircher. Now let's keep our fingers crossed that I can get up for a bike ride tomorrow.

Chubby Katie.x

Sprint Baby

Ok ok i've had a great idea, well I was inspired by Brett on the Zen Tri podcast. I was out running and listen to his podcast, as I often do, and he was talking about his Iron baby. Its a self supported Iron man that he has done about 6 times for charity.
It made me think, maybe I should do a self supported sprint triathlon. I would do it instead of the Kurnell triathlon and then go and watch the Kurnell one and see how I would compare.

So a Sprint tri is a 750m swim, 20km bike and a 5km run. I will aim to do it on 19th Nov on the day before Kurnell, early in the morning to avoid too much traffic and heat.

I still need to plan the route but I think ideally i'd like to do it in the ocean rather a swimming pool. Maybe an ocean pool would be okay. Only probably is that I would need to lock my bike up and leave my bike shoes somewhere.

I might try and rope my dad into doing one in England at the same time. Let me know if you've done anything similar or are keen to give it a try.

Chubby Katie