Did the earth move for you...?!?

Thursday 22/02/07:

Firstly, I just wanna say thanks for the comments - its a relief to know I'm not the only one who has been known to go out running wearing more than one watch!! No, of course I didn't get asked for the time - that would only happen when I wasn't wearing a watch!!

As it was around midnight before I hit the sack last night - and I had a visit from Courtney at 3.15am with a sore throat - I decided to leave my run until this evening. So I took Courtney in to gymnastics then headed off in a completely different direction than usual when I run from there - streets I haven't run on in quite a long time... It was another warm evening and even at 6pm the sun was still beating down - but I felt about 100 times better than last week at the same time! Plan was calling for a 35min jog, but decided to just head off and see how I felt and play it by ear... open to doing a bit more to kill the time.

Brisk walk warmup: 5mins
Easy paced run: 40.42mins (7.55kms) - max pace 4.00min/km, ave pace 5.23min/km.
Brisk walk cooldown: 5mins

OK, so it wasn't entirely an "easy paced" run all the way thru - but I was feeling really good after the first couple of kms and thought what the heck... just run how ya feel... It was interesting to see the pace stats on the Polar as I went - but then I am a typical domineering Aries female, therefore no gadget is gonna dictate how I have to run!!

Also, I think my "easy pace" is probably a little faster than I've been giving myself credit for lately. I've proved to myself time and again where my "steady pace" sits most of the time and that I'm good at gauging it - up until about 12mths ago I only ever trained at that one pace - I never (intentionally) varied my speeds from one training run to the next, let alone within a session. So running at a slower pace than what just comes naturally some of the time now is still quite new to me and doesn't always feel comfortable or natural for my legs... "Easy pace" as described in my current training plan means "Very light running and conversation easy". Of course your current fitness level will always cause this to fluctuate - and unless you're actually having a conversation while running, it can be hard to judge! But its fair to say, I do have trouble keeping my speed down below a steady pace - which is described as "in control of breathing but just able to hold a conversation." I guess using the Polar Sports Zones and the HR monitor could help me out here... but any other advice or comments on this stuff is much appreciated...

Tonight I know there were sections where I was running much harder than "easy" - there was one really steep incline that took a lot of effort - and if I'd remained at an easy, conversation pace I wouldn't have even been walking! But this was followed by two steep downhill sections where I was running much faster than normal with little effort. I'll also confess to a bit of a 'vanity farlek' - when I passed 3 of the other 'gym mums' who were out walking! I think that's probably where the max 4.00min/km pace came in! Anyway, what all this musing is leading up to is that I felt good out there and it still felt like an 'easy run' overall, even tho there were harder and faster sections... Does that make sense...?!?

Don't know if news has travelled "off-shore" at all - but Auckland was hit by 3 earthquakes last night! I was still up and awake - busy doing stuff, during all of them - but knew nothing about it until I heard it on the radio this morning! Granted, they weren't "big ones" obviously - but one was the biggest in Auckland since 1970 and another the biggest here this century! The first hit at approx 8.20pm and measured 3.7 on the Richter Scale, followed by a 4.5 at 9pm and then a 3.8 at 11.23pm! Now Auckland is not at all known for its tremours (thank goodness!) - hey, we have over 50 active volcanoes in the greater Auckland region and its a harbour city - earthquakes are not our most likely natural disaster! These ones were all located out in the Hauraki Gulf, approx 30kms off-shore from Orewa and at depths varying from 7-15kms. Orewa is pretty much on the northern outskirts of Auckland, while I live in the Sou-Eastern outer suburbs, but people all over the city did feel them, the airport (which is only a 20min drive from home) was temporarily closed while they checked the runways for damage and evidently in some areas not too far away from here people were running out into the streets and about 20 claims have been lodged for damage! Does make you stop and think what you'd do if a big one hit and question if you are prepared for any natural disaster, that could occur at any time...

Oh and I saw this bumper sticker tonight - "Runs end, running doesn't" and it had a little "running man" pic beside it! Cool!

Rest day for the week is tomorrow and Saturday is not an overly long run like usual - with the HM just over 2 weeks away, it's shorter but with intervals thrown in... joy!