Did I tell you lately that I love you....? Australians? Ow, come on guys and girls, feel the love...!

Wednesday 07/03/07:
Had a totally crap sleep last night in the end... got into bed early enough but then had to get up to Courtney who was wheezy due to her cold and needed Ventolin. Then I just couldn't sleep - was too hot, itchy, just not tired all of a sudden. Got back up for a while, but even when I got back into bed an hour or so later, sleep was restless and light... Despite this, I got my act together a little bit earlier this morning and was into my run by 6am, despite it being another short one.

Ran the same out and back course as yesterday, mainly because its well lit and flat for the sprints. After raving about what great weather we've been having, it was a little drizzly and rather windy this morning! Had it way too good for too long...

Brisk walk warmup: 5mins
Easy paced run + 2 x 15sec sprints: 35.40, 6.75km, Max 3.46min/km, Ave 5.17min/km.
Brisk walk cooldown: 3mins

Rather strong head wind on the way out, but it made the return trip feel much easier. Waited till then to do my sprints of course! Don't know what happened there this morning - I actually felt like I was running really fast on the first one, knowing I only had two to do should have helped - but according to the Polar I was much slower than yesterday. Oh well, they're done now!

As I headed back along the main road towards home at a nice easy pace, I was taking Shane's advice - as I have done a few times recently - and was singing away out loud in order to check I was at 'conversation pace'. Hinders "Lips of an Angel" came on the iPod and I love it so was belting it out as I went (can't sing for shite!) Hey it is a rock song, you have to get all carried away and sing loud! Just then, a guy who had been lingering in his driveway, waiting for a lift or something, stepped forward with a big smirk on his face... He'd probably heard me coming all the way up the road in the half-dark. Ironic thing was, he had a fluro vest on... if he hadn't been standing back behind his hedge, I would have seen him earlier and saved myself some embarassment... oh well! Probably gave him and his buddies something to laugh about at smoko!

Had another massage tonight, got her to work on the sore area on my left calf, as well as the usual - glutes, calves, shins, etc. Things weren't quite as sore as last week, guess thats a plus of decreased milage and no hills/stairs. Will have another next Wed after the HM - the objective is to come out of this one strongly and continue to build towards another in about 8 weeks, with some shorter events in between.

Also dawned on me this morning that I hadn't addressed a part of one of Em's comments from the other day about NZ running forums/websites. The only one I'm aware of is Cool Running NZ. I used to check it out way back, even found a running buddy there once (but he piked after a couple of weeks.... like to tell myself he couldn't hack the pace!!) Anyway, don't go there much these days, but it used to be very 'clicky' and dominated by half a dozen or so 'personalities' that were less than friendly. Couldn't be bothered with all that, which is why I crashed Ausrun instead! Used to love the English "Real Runner" forum back in the old days under previous management - thats how I met my friend Sara. But they ended up having problems and eventually closed the site down. Its been back for a couple of years under new ownership, but I've never forgiven them for killing the old one!

And on that note - that brings me to my title... I'm just doing my bit, cos Helen Clark asked me to.... I was reading an article in the NZ Herald the other day and could hardly believe it! Our government is asking us to "be nice to Australians" this month in the hope that more will visit here (we want your tourist dollars!) They reckon if we keep up the trans-Tasman rivallry, jokes and name calling, we'll scare you all off! Personally I think its all pretty mutual and good-natured, harmless, fun... next they'll be telling the Black Caps to lose the World Cup to ya's on purpose!! ;-) Group hug...!