There's life in these legs yet...!

Friday 16/02/07:
Knew before the alarm even went off at 5.45am that I wasn't going to be running today... had a terrible nights sleep and the dreaded ab cramps were still prevalent, so I stayed in bed for another hour instead.

Exciting news tho - did have something brighten up my day! Lets just say an 'extended family' member had an unexpected windfall - a substantial win on last weekends Lotto - and Courtney, my Mum and I all received some very unexpected gifts today! It was totally out of the blue for us, as we knew nothing at all about it until today. This 'someone' just happened to know that I had my eye on a Polar RS200sd running computer! So that was one of my gifts and I also recieved a Nike Platinum store card with $300 loaded on it! Am I spoiled or what?!? My Mum was even more surprised to recieve a bottle of rum (her only tipple!) and $200 shopping vouchers and lets just say Courtney's bank account has recieved a very nice boost and she got some other lovely little pressies too! But I am even more excited and happy for the person concerned - the amount won may not be totally 'life changing' but it is substantial.

So I now have my Polar! I have yet to find the time to sit down and enter anymore than the most basic of info and figure it all out - but can't wait to start using it!

Went out for a bite to eat and a movie with a girlfriend tonight and we saw "Music & Lyrics" with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. If you want a 'fluffy' movie that you don't have to think about and just sit back and laugh at - its great! Although I think you've got to have 'grown up' in the 80s to really appreciate it! I really like Hugh Grant because he makes being funny look so natural and easy and this movie really suits him - he has some classic lines and he's not bad for 46 I have to say!

Still, I was in bed by 10.30pm in preparation for my Sat long run. But a combination of the excitement of the day, apprehension about the long run and a bloody mosquito that kept buzzing round my head but would disappear whenever I turned the light on, made for a less than restful night - in fact I felt like I hardly got any sleep at all and saw every hour on the clock...! Grrrrr!

Saturday 17/02/07:
Rob and I had planned to met up at about 6.30am and get a few kms in before we met up with the rest of the group. I wanted to be able to slowly ease into the run after Thursday night's episode, so therefore I did a couple of easy paced kms on my own first - which meant I was on the road by 6.15am. By the time we joined the group of 4 others, I'd been running for 35mins. I'd promised myself no racing the boys today... I wanted a consistant pace and a minimum of 100mins, as per the plan.

It was a perfectly clear, fine morning again - certainly can't complain about the weather lately! I was glad to have my Fuelbelt with the usual half-strength Replace on board. Today we headed thru the Rotary track again - so a good 4-5km on the trails and steps, but as the tide was way in we then took a stairway up a cliff that I hadn't been on before and once at the top we ran thru some streets where I was totally lost. Eventually we emerged into familiar territory, but took a couple more detours before I really knew where I was. I stuck mainly with Rob and Colin today, towards the back of the pack - no racing as promised. I knew that as I'd ran from home today, I would still have another 4kms or so to run once the others turned off for home..

By the time they did, I already had almost 100mins on my watch. Due to the fact that I had run more conservatively today, I was still feeling pretty good and the last few kms on my own weren't the hard slog of other weeks... So I ended up with:

Brisk walk warmup: 5mins
Steady paced run: 120mins (approx 22km and my first 2hr run in a long time)
Brisk walk cooldown: 5mins

I still had a few minor 'tummy troubles' along the way and hadn't even felt like drinking all of my Replace because of it, but otherwise I was really pleased with how I felt on the entire run. Certainly the legs were much improved, which was a real relief.

Even tho I was a bit pushed for time when I got back, I made time for an ice bath! Its really not as bad as it seems - in fact I think I actually enjoyed it today! And although I have been on the go for the rest of the day and am absolutely exhausted now - I can honestly say, hand on heart, that my legs do not feel achey or fatigued.

So, 3 weeks out from my next HM, that's the longest training run of the plan completed (and it was even 20mins longer than required!) Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day and Courtney will be out with her Dad, so I'll probably just join my Mum on her walk instead - or maybe do a bit of a jog, seeing as I missed Friday's.

I am 100% sure I will sleep like a log tonight - I'm going to hit the sack right now as I am totally exhausted! Tomorrow I will work out the rest of the set up for the Polar, including calibrating the foot pod. So all going to plan, this will be the last long run over an unmeasured/off-road course, where I have to estimate the distance! Thanks to the Polar, I'll know! Hooray!