Ellie's Run to the New York Marathon

Where was I?

Well its been a long time since I updated but I can honestly and happily say that things are going very well in the running stakes. I have a few weeks of consistent training and have some lovely ladies to run with (although everyone is a bit faster than me, still I am a bit pain averse so perhaps i should just HTFU!). 

I haven't been keeping very good records of what I have done (which is quite unlike me) but that may change now that I get back into the habit of it. I have been running sans garmin and just with a stop watch which means I am feeling very relaxed about it all. I don't need to race at the moment and although I am doing a few sessions that leave me buggered - nothing is leaving me completely shattered, and nothing is leaving me hurting - and that is the number one priority.

A few highlights of the last few weeks have been:

- Running 75 mins twice! This morning 8 of us headed to a gorgeous bike path in Marrickville for 75 mins (except the lovely plod bod who kept going for a round 90 and last big run before her exciting marathon debut!). I was tired by the end - but not absolutely stuffed. All good news! 

- Sticking mostly to my program - 4 runs a week. 

- Having Sammie and Lulu to run with in the mornings (not so much Sam now as she has moved away... :(  )

- Seeing B set a tremendous 5k pb of 19.22 yesterday morning.

- Not being injured! Huzzah!

Other than running work is going great guns. My business is going really well and in fact I have more work that I can comfortably handle (she says having done no work all weekend!). We launched EasyWrite in NSW and have had some success - although when I have time I need to focus on marketing to parents which is a bit of a mystery to me.

Life is busy but good. 

Will update more frequently henceforth!

back to 10k at last!

Well I can't remember the last time I ran 10km (wait, have looked back and it was February 19) so it was with a mix of excitement and trepidation that I fronted up for the Striders 10k at North Head this morning.

I was feeling good and my only goals were 'don't get injured' and 'don't get injured'. I achieved both of those goals which is a very nice feeling which I attribute to my new knob (see last post to avoid misunderstanding :) and also to doing my exercises a bit more regularly.

I thought after the first 1.5k that it might be my fitness that let me down, but as per normal I warmed up and while I felt like I was pushing the whole way, I never felt completely r**ted. I started out really slow and managed to even overtake a few people. Finished in 61m16s so that is a pretty good pace in the scheme of things and is certainly faster than I have run in quite some time (did someone say 'speedwork'???).

There were so many fantastic runs out there - the standouts being Running Angel, BlueBel and PlodBod who needs to back herself a little more.

Great day.

xxxxx

Bout time I updated

I can't really remember where I left off but this Tuesday I had an awesome run with Shufflin' Sam for just over 50 mins. The back felt great, thanks no doubt, to some more exercises/stretching and my new knob :)

http://www.sportstek.net/the-knob.htm

However, since then things have been a little up and down. I caught a weird version of a cold that involves sneezing and coughing rather than a running now (a bit of that too though!). I am still a bit congested so decided against my Thursday run so that I can do the Striders 10k on Saturday. I am meant to do 1hr 15 so I figure that will be close enough given my lack of training lately.

Funnily enough, the day I felt a bit better from my cold I woke up with a gross bloodshot eye. Noice.

I am a bit snowed under at the moment. Work is intense and next week I have 2 exams, one assignment due and on Sat/Sun next week is the Education Expo where I will be selling our EasyWrite audiocue handwriting tool (www.easywrite.com.au). I am looking forward to that actually, as my mum is coming over for the week (it is her business that produces EasyWrite). Also I will have 6 weeks off uni!

I am doing a lot of research for a wellbeing course I am delivering later in the year and particularly am looking at the benefits of cultivating an 'attitude of gratitude' in every day life and its impact of happiness and wellbeing.

In particular I am reading a book called 'Thanks' which is about the scientific evidence behind gratitude and the author Bob Emmons has done a great deal of research into it. I haven't finished it, but anyone interested in wellbeing and happiness could do worse than reading this one!

It has also been a great reminder that I am incredibly lucky and every now and then I do sit back and think 'far out, life is good' :)

Hope everyone has a lovely long weekend!