5 Random things.

1.

I have added a few new favourite songs to my running playlist, but easily my favourite one at the moment is 'Super Love'.  I don't keep up with many artists these days, maybe it is an age thing, or the fact that I listen to a crazy amount of children's music but I am fairly unapologetic about what I love, even if it is cheesy and over produced, if it gets me moving then it works for me.

2.  

I am having enough hot flushes lately to heat our house, I am over it, sick to death of constantly peeling layers off to cool down and then piling them back on again when I am freezing and of course with skin like mine I also go a lovely shade of beetroot.  However Friday marks the halfway point and if I wasn't working I would consider champagne!

3. 

The boys have been hilarious lately, Hugo is demanding but endearing, his current obsession of trains and rubbish trucks is reaching fever point and he often sobs like his world is ending if either are out of his sight for very long.  Otto has discovered words like "hypothesis" and "experiment" and would like to conduct science experiments of increasing danger to test them out.

4.

I am counting down sleeps until this weekend when I get to go away for my first ever girls weekend with my book club since having children, the excitement is reaching fever pitch.

5.

GO AND MAKE THIS

And yes, I really am screaming that.

City2South.

Yesterday at 5am my alarm went off, usually on a race day I am out of bed like a shot ready to get dressed and in the car full of enthusiasm, but yesterday I just couldn't muster it, for some reason I snoozed the alarm and tried to forget about it, eventually I hauled myself out of bed and got ready to go.  I still can't explain why I was so apathetic about it but the feeling continued right up until the second km, I am pleased that I eventually got my head out of whatever funk it was in but it wasn't the most fun way to start a race.

The course is a stunning route showing off the best of the inner city area that we are blessed to have, lots of views of the river with a few killer hills right at the end that had me swearing in disbelief, I got up them well enough but coming back down was a bit terrifying, I still need to work on that.

I ran as part of a corporate team with my work so was looking out for any other similar shirts, sadly I didn't see any while running but it was great to have a meet up at the tent once the race was done with a yummy breakfast waiting for us.  

Overall this is a great run, a very well organised event in a great part of the city at a time when we usually enjoy wonderful weather so I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a challenge next year.  I am happy because with a time of 1hr 13min I have secured myself a spot in the red zone next year, which is right at the front meaning that I will be pushed to go even faster surrounded by all those speedy people.

This was a great training run for the half marathon in a few weeks, and the fact that I could maintain a 5:13/km pace has me really hopeful that I will get my goal of coming in under 2 hours.  Now I just keep my training on schedule, and with an active recovery swim this morning I am right on schedule!

 What started as a hard race finished as a triumph, and you can't ask for much better than that.

21 km really does look a long way.

Today the course map for the half marathon was released, I have been looking forward to printing it out and getting to know the course really well, hopefully even running the whole thing at least once, or at least sections of it.

The crazy part about it all is that it seems insanely long!  I have run this distance before, but that run was 2 laps of the same course whereas this one only double backs a few times so we have a very good idea of just how long it will be!  

Better keep training!  I am running the city2south on Sunday so it will be very interesting to see how I go over the 14 km.  Tonight I am all set to enjoy the new season of Orange is the new black with a few glasses of wine and some good chocolate.

Enjoy the weekend.

Ticking off a new goal.

Today, after being woken by Hugo at 4:30am with a request to play trains (how about a loud resounding NO) and not long after by Otto demanding that I fix his blankets as he found them too "confusing" I wasn't feeling very enthused to head to work and then a run along the river.  Thank goodness there is always coffee.

After finishing for the day I got changed without thinking about it and set off along the river, it is one of my favourite places to run, especially on a day like today with the sun out and a slight breeze, a perfect 22 degrees.  I wasn't paying too much attention to my running app, I was mostly watching for cyclists and enjoying the view, thinking about how great it is to be able to live in such a gorgeous city and how thankful I am to be able to run there, when suddenly an update came through and I realised that I was running at my goal pace, a pace that I have been working towards for months!  I only had two km's to go and knew that I had it in me, suddenly my thoughts changed to keeping on pace and attacking the run, the whole time with a huge grin on my face, I could do it, I knew I could.

And I did, I danced a victory dance right there on Coronation Drive, I don't care who saw me, I had finally cracked it and it felt good.

Yep, 5 min/km, a year ago I would never have dreamed of being able to achieve that and I am proud of those numbers, they show a lot of hard work and determination.

And I am still beaming!

Can I put in an order for more weather like this!

Hasn't this morning been gorgeous!  I was woken bright and early as usual but managed to convince both boys to snuggle a bit longer under the covers as it was still dark and cold, I love this time the most, when they are both still warm from their own beds, chatting about what we are doing today.

I decided not to run, it was a bit close to my run from yesterday and both boys still have coughs so I don't want them out in the cold air, instead we chose to ride to Kindy this morning and that is always fun for all of us.  Otto is so proud of riding his bike, especially when all his friends see him ride up to the gate, and Hugo loves it too, this morning I had the bonus of riding with my very own dinosaur on the back.

I love Tuesday's, Hugo and I are free to do whatever we like, and this week we continued on to meet a new friend for coffee and a play in the park right by the river.  Honestly, some mornings everything just goes right and today was one of them.

I think even this sleepysaurus thinks so.

Later today I am meeting with the builder to start working towards our renovations, we have been waiting such a long time to get this started and I am beyond excited to get going with our first stage.  Having lived through renovations before I know it won't be easy but the end product will be absolutely worth it.

How to make your sports wardrobe go further!

Ok, so since starting to become more serious in my sporting ventures I have noticed that there is a ridiculous amount of apparel out there for each discipline.  Swimmers in all shapes, colours and sizes, running gear for all different seasons, shapes and sizes and cycling gear that seems to cover very little but cost an awful lot.

I started off running, and over the last 18 months have amassed a decent wardrobe inspired by lycra, a few cross season pieces but mostly summer stuff as this is only my second winter running and last year I borrowed Han's long sleeve travel top.  I shop only in sales and hate paying much more than $20 for any item (except shoes, I will pay good money to run pain free).  Stumbling into the world of cycling I was surprised and dismayed that much of my running wardrobe didn't transition well into that field and then I learnt the hard way that the padding in cycling pants is there for a very good reason.  Now add triathlon to that and the pants need a different style of padding, I guess running and cycling with a giant water soaked pad between your legs really isn't anyone's idea of fun.  Last night I spent a bit of time on ebay and other sites trying to find a reasonably priced triathlon pant when I discovered what is possibly the funniest, ugliest but best invention for people like me!

Source 

In the interest of full disclosure these are not the ones that I purchased, there were a few different ones to select from, but this picture gives the best idea.

With the cycling undies, my running wardrobe will go even further as I can wear these under all my running tights, go ahead, laugh, I sure did but I am pleased as anything to only spend $10 on a pair of undies instead of over $100 on a pair of cycling tights!

In other training news, I went for a long run this afternoon, and it felt good to get some distance on the legs again, especially without the stroller, it is a bit slower than race pace as I have a 14 km run coming up on Sunday.

The week that was.

I was perusing my facebook feed earlier today when a lovely reminder from the Brisbane Marathon Festival popped up, "only 8 weeks until race day"!  Cue stress hot flush and a realisation that I absolutely need to start seriously attacking my training if I want to make it under two hours, I was so organised and strict leading up to the twilight half marathon and my efforts were rewarded, so I know I can do it.

I really pushed myself at swimming last Friday and have had a few stroke correction suggestions made to me by our coach which have helped immensely, even if it slows me down to start with while I am concentrating on correcting the technique, I have had muscles become sore that I didn't even know existed!

Saturday I headed to a quick park run before the rubbish truck party, I was still feeling pretty exhausted from the previous day's efforts in the pool so I didn't intend on pushing it too hard.  It was overcast and I decided to listen to music and use the Nike running app for a change as I usually do these runs without any technology, what I can only imagine was a fault due to the cloud cover preventing good signal to the GPS my nike app started to throw some strange sounding splits my way, it felt like I was pushing hard and keeping up with the pack but my 1 km splits were much slower than normal, a fact that I put down to swimming at the time.  Until I got my park run results.
Park run: 26:55
Nike:  28:55
Now that is a pretty big difference and to be honest I feel like I was pushing myself hard enough that the 26:55 is the more realistic time, certainly not the recovery run I was planning but I am still happy that I was able to push myself through the 27 minute barrier again.

After eating our weight in sugar on Saturday afternoon at Hugo's party the whole family headed out to enjoy the color run in Brisbane with some friends on Sunday morning.  It was a great event, possibly a little less family friendly than the one we attended on the Gold Coast last year but we all left smiling and covered in paint, so fair to say mission accomplished.

Monday and Tuesday turned out to be rest days due to a few unscheduled changes to our routine but we did manage to ride our bikes to and from kindy each day which was a lovely time to spend with the boys. 

 Wednesday I headed back to the pool for a heart rate class, I usually can't attend on a Wednesday so it was fun to try it out, I worked more on my stroke and have been given more instruction, so more sore muscles but I am much happier to be heading in the right direction as swimming is easily my weakest triathlon discipline.  The rest of the week was filled with more swimming and minimal running.  

That all changed today as I headed to my second triathlon training session.  Last time my ass was handed to me on a platter and I left with my tail between my legs, this time I feel as though I was able to redeem myself somewhat.

After finishing late at work last night I woke up crazy early and headed out before the sun came out.  It is so invigorating being out at that time of morning, most often you see other people running, cycling or driving to fit their training in before the weekend starts and life takes over, it is a really peaceful time of day to experience and never fails to make me appreciate the ability to greet it.  I enjoyed training within a group, not only for the social aspect but also for the ability to push yourself to try and keep up with people fitter and faster than you.  This week I didn't finish dead last, but still in the slower portion of the club, I am happy there, it means I have a long way to go yet.

A new week is about to start and I feel ready to get out there and start attacking that half marathon goal.

Rubbish truck party.

I am the first to admit that as much as I love Hugo, love celebrating events especially birthdays, my desire to throw a big party leading up to his second birthday was severely lacking.  We had so much happening so I was relieved to remember that Otto's second birthday was a fizzer as well, at least that meant I didn't have to keep it fair.

So, Hugo is obsessed with rubbish trucks, has been for as long as I can remember.  Bin day at our house is the best day of the week, you will often find us camped out on the driveway watching them go about their business while the drivers toot and wave to him, he has a little excited jump and dance when he sees them coming that I really need to remember to record before it stops.  It wasn't even a decision process to make that some sort of overall theme, even if it was kept pretty minimal.

Hugo had a great day, and managed to be lucky enough to gain three rubbish trucks which have been played with non stop since Saturday.  We are so incredibly blessed to have him in our family and just as lucky to have so many wonderful family and friends around us that make up our village.