I finally made it up to Mount Dandenong to take a spin around part of the Rollercoaster Run course on Sunday. It was a pretty slow as 16km, I won’t say how slow, suffice to say a snail passed me at one stage and asked if I wanted a lift.
Ah well, it’s all training, it sure beat the hell out of doing nowt and it was a warm but drizzly day with a few thick patches of fog, just about my favourite conditions on the mountain.
Of course this all made for some seriously slippery conditions, seriously. On the downhills we could see footprints from people who’d already run though, these were accompanied more often than not with long skid marks. It was only a matter of time and my moment came when I was picking my way along a log on some single track, slipped, fell to the side, a nice backwards somersault and before I knew it slipping backwards on wet grass down a rather steep slope, yikes!
In spite of all this tumbling and splashing through puddles and rolling about in wet grass I somehow managed to remain leech free.
The requisite DOMs kicked in on Monday afternoon, in spite of my best efforts to allay the inevitable, this has given me a rather robotic gait, amusing to all but myself.
Owing to this I approached my interval session with a great deal of trepidation this afternoon, I gave myself a pep talk, did a nice long slow warm up and faced up to the pain.
The session was 6 by 500 metres (60 second standing recovery), I’ve only been back doing speedwork for 3 weeks, it’s getting easier each week and I am enjoying that long forgotten feeling of a session well done.
In spite of the heavy legs it turned out to be a good session and the DOMs was forgotten (briefly, robotic again now). I gave myself a stern talking too about sticking to a steady pace and not flogging myself so I couldn’t finish and off I went.
I surprised myself, 6 pretty even sets and a warm fuzzy glow at the end of it
2:15
2:13
2:08
2:12
2:05
2:10
I’m quite pleased with this, it’s been a good long while since I did consistent speedwork and it’s heartening to do a session and find that I am not all that far off my old self and I can hit reasonably even splits.
Ok - So I’ve been hasseling people to write to their local member if they would like to express their support for the current campaign by Victorian nurses trying to ensure they are paid fairly and have decent working conditions.
Here is the letter I wrote, if interested feel free to copy it, just take out my own personal little story in the second paragraph.
There is an online petition here and the names and office addres for all state MPs
http://respectourwork.com.au/speak-out/
Mr Neil Angus
Forest Hill Electoral Office
4 Lawrence Street, Blackburn South 3130
Dear Mr Angus
I write to you as a member of the state electorate of Forest Hill, as a tax payer and as a concerned member of the public.
I respect the work that nurses, midwives and mental health nurses do. Nurses, midwives and mental health nurses save lives and over the years have provided care and compassion for many of my friends and members of my family. In particular the palliative care and compassion shown to my grandmother as she was dying from cancer will never be forgotten by my family.
The Respect our Work campaign is seeking improvements to nurses’, midwives’ and mental health nurses’ wages and staffing levels and their ability to provide safe expert care to patients, clients and residents in the next enterprise agreement. Victoria has a healthy nursing and midwifery workforce and a unique low vacancy rate. These claims will also help prevent a future nurse and midwife shortage. They are seeking:
Competitive wages comparable to other states. Most Victorian nurses, midwives and mental health nurses are behind their interstate colleagues.
Improved nurse patient ratios in areas such as palliative care, emergency department, residential aged care, rehabilitation and geriatric evaluation management (GEM) units. In many cases they are asking for just one extra nurse per shift.
The introduction of ratios in day surgery, dialysis, day oncology and stroke beds. These areas have limited minimum nursing numbers.
Minimum mental health nurse patient profiles in inpatient, residential and high dependency unit. Mental health has no mandated minimum nursing numbers.
The community respects nurses, midwives and mental health nurses. It is vital the Victorian Government, the public sector employers and those who determine health policy go beyond rhetoric and also demonstrate respect by improving their ability to provide safe patient care instead of compromising patient care by asking us to do more with less.
Nursing is not just a career, it’s a vocation, it takes a special kind of person do do this work, compassionate, intelligent, quick thinking, calm in a crisis. Nurses and Midwives are educated to a University level, they maintian and update their qualifations, their job his highly specialised and carries a great weight of responsibility. They look after us at our most vulnerable, their work is physically and mentally challenging, they are often the first face a frightened patient will see after waking from surgery, the hand that someone will hold when they are alone and an ongoing and reassuring presence for the long term ill.
The Liberal Government has a chance to make a difference, to go beyond political rhetoric and point scoring and to give the Nurses and Midwives of this state their fair due.
Does this Government have the courage to do that?
Regards
Emma Wilton
Sprint Distance Trail Running
6km Marondah Dam trail run, this is part of a series of 4 runs I’ve entered. 15km would have been idea but the next distance up was 30km and I ‘aint ready for that yet.
Still, running only 6km was surprisingly enjoyable, it was a challenging course and I proved that there is some merit in a spot of hill walking. Everyone who overtook me when I stopped and walked ended up behind me when I crossed the finish line. Even though my hill strength needs a heap of work I was pleased with how I was able to hit the flats and downhills nice and strong and take people over.
It took me a touch over 37 minutes, the course measure at around 6.3km, I was happy enough to finish at just under 6 minute kms, splits were ALL over the place, slowest 7:31, quickest 4:45!
The next one is at Mount Macedon in June, around 10km I think, it’s in May and I hope to be much stronger by then.
Just a few things I happened across on my walk to and from work yesterday morning.
The giant Theremin near Flinders Street Station - This is just too cool for words, I ran past it a few times while doing runs in my lunch break. The first few times “oh, that’s an odd noise” registered in the back of my mind, one day I paid a little more attention and I caught on. Now, I am afraid to say, the CCTV camera on top has caught me dancing, jumping and waving my arms about in front on more than a few occasions. Its also equally fun to stand back and watch other people discover what’s going on and start mucking about too.
Just near the Theremin there was some art works fixed to the fence that had been made from found objects, I love owls so of course this took my fancy.
Finally, the Strandbeest! Just too damn cool, its one of many kinetic sculptures by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. These have really captured my imagination, there are two featured at Federation Square until the end of the month, there is the big one in the photo and a little one that the public can interact with. They operate via wind, this one has air pumped into the bottles with a bicycle pump and off it goes, it’s quite magical to watch. Go and visit the website and have a look at a huge one walking down a beach www.strandbeest.com
So that’s a few things from Melbourne town, it pays to slow down a little and pay attention to what is going on around you.
Arms day, lotsa dumbbells, wondering why they call them dumbbells. They kind of look like bell clangers but they ain’t dumb, they make a hell of a racket if you drop them on the floor, or a cat.
I tried to find a suitable pictorial representation of fickle, but there was nothing especially inspiring, although the drawing of a woman apparently about to engage in congress with some sort of ant eater was both puzzling and so obscure a reference as to fly right over my head, don’t believe me, pop fickle into google and go to images, go on…..
So, apart from farm implements and bestiality what am I banging on about today?
One thing you learn very quickly when trying to regain your fitness after an injury is that the your form is a fickle fickle thing.
I returned to long runs 3 weeks ago, by long run I mean anything over 15km.
Three weeks ago it was a hot and slightly nauseous 15km slog around Lysterfield at well over 6 minutes per km, last week it was a lacklustre 15.8km eked out at a very uninspiring average of 5:55 minutes per km.
I missed my long run yesterday because I had to work during the night and could’t get up early enough to beat the heat, so I knocked off work at 1pm today and headed out for 16km.
I averaged 5:20 minutes per km.
Go figure.
Bloody hell, it’s been a battle these last couple of months trying to get back into running. My motivation escaped me completely and I found myself wracked with guilt at missing a planned run and starting to tie myself up into all sorts of complicated knots and again standing on the ledge of giving it all away.
In order to save my sanity I took a step back from it all, threw out any idea of a plan and just woke up and did whatever the hell I felt like on any given day. The only consistent element was that on just about every day I’d do some form of exercise, weight training, HIIT in the gym, HIIT outdoors, a run, a ride, a bushwalk.
Some days would find me slumped on the couch in total despair and in a change of roles TOH half would be gently cajoling me out for “just a little walk to the park together , maybe a short run as well”. Being fit and healthy again has made him a new person (or the old person he used to be); he’s been invaluable in pulling me back into line and stopping the slide into slothdom.
Then the clouds started to lift, the monkey left my back, the weight came off my shoulders and various other clichés took flight and cleared from my path as I emerged from an injury layoff and a longer and more complicated than I expected return to running.
Weight training has been an absolute saviour and I’ll say it again, I am so very glad I took it up. It’s still very much a part of my overall fitness regime and I look forward to my sessions in the gym. I look different to the person I was 6 months ago, I feel strong and reasonably confident that I can now run without risk of major injury, so long as I train sensibly. I could probably arm wrestle a gorilla too.
This week has seen a dramatic turnaround in my running, for so long now every time I’ve run it has felt like a soul destroying slog. Suddenly this week I’ve had two really great runs in a row, the old feeling is back and it’s started to become a pleasure again, not some dreaded chore and I look forward to lacing up and heading out the door.
So here I am, not done yet, but planning on doing things a little differently from here on in, I suppose it’s a new beginning.
Australia Day bush walk in the Dandenongs, we saw a great big Goanna but I didn’t get a picture. Walked a tad over 11km, up and down, up and down with a picnic lunch where a magpie tried to steal our zucchini patties, I think he was expecting hamburgers.
The route took in some of the course for the Rollercoaster Run (www.rollercoasterrun.com), I can assure you , the name carries not a hint of irony.
Young female rioter in London being interviewed on the radio this morning……
“It’s all like the Guv’mints fault, ya know, like, Conservatives or whatever, who is it anyway?”
For fucks sake, one wonders if she even bothered to vote at the last election.
This just in, latest Warnie photos
