This is a summary of week one of training for the Run Melbourne fun run on 28 July. I haven’t doubled up on Day 1 (https://wordpress.com/post/runningmoneysite.com/3465) and Day 2 (https://wordpress.com/post/runningmoneysite.com/3479) which you can access via their respective links.
Day 3 Wednesday 17-04-19
The dog is not impressed. My new ABC News radio “appearances” – or should they be called a”hear”ances – on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:36am means that I now have 15 minutes of extra time before the 7am “need to be in the shower or be late for work” cut-off. The result is a quick walk around Elwood canal with my favourite workout partner (actually favourite living being). Unfortunately, while Cooper can tell the difference between a weekday morning and a weekend morning, he has yet to master the “it’s only Tuesdays and Thursdays” rhythm of early-but-not-“Overnights”-early-radio. I was shadowed the entire morning and received a pretty lethal look as I left for work.
As expected, those “on toe” push ups have had a less-than-desired initial impact on the upper body. Of course, based on the “no pain, no gain” principle, one could expect this to mean I have gained something. Perhaps the biceps will appear tomorrow?
There were good intentions of attending the 6:45pm “Fit Strength” class at the local gym, but you know what good intentions are, right. Hmmm. Yes well those intentions ended up on the couch with the tele and a sneaky mid-week glass of rose. Ooops!
Exercise – Yes, no.
Day 4 Thursday 18-04-19
Thursday is early-but-not-“Overnights”-early-radio. The dog gets his walk. There is something about getting up and being active earlier that has a sort of positive reinforcement factor to it. You realise that not everyone is trying to squeeze in a few extra minutes of sleep. A whole pack of dogs and their owners meet in the local school park. They are starting to leave as we walk past at 6:45am so we are the late ones. Perhaps I can try and foster the usually negative FOMO phenomena and use it for good this time, and try not to miss out on all the active stuff I can get done in the mornings.
Lunch time run – Unfortunately I forgot to turn my running watch on,, but based on the run back (when I realised), it looks like I did a 3.5km walk/run @8.14m/k.
Day 5-8 Easter Friday 19-04-19 to Monday 22-04-19
Despite packing my active wear, runners and some light dumbbells, there was no “formal” exercise over the weekend. But we were camping, so I’m going to emphasise all the “incidental” exercise I did. Yes, there was a lot of sitting in my camp chair. I have a very special camp chair that actually reclines, with a footrest that comes out like the seats in first class, and it is always my favourite place…wherever it might be. But there was also a lot of activity. I sincerely believe that setting up our camping trailer is the equivalent of a 45-minute gym workout (with weights). I think the kids would support me on this one, considering their aversion to assisting (although, in their defence, they are getting MUCH better).
With no power, no telephone range and even no gas on the first night (we ran out mid-way through cooking dinner), this was a bit different from our normal glamping trips. Water required a trek to the camp kitchen. Phone charging (for when we went to town and reception!!!!) required taking turns with the other park residents to use the 2 available power points in the bathroom. (Fortunately, I have a 4 socket adapter so we got bang for our power-point buck). I think fate may have been on my side on this as well – I needed to visit said bathrooms at 5:24am on Monday morning and realised that my regular early morning 5:30am alarm was on and I’m not sure I would have been very popular around the camp ground if those 6 minutes hadn’t averted disaster.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the lack of facilities, we had a great time. We played a range of games, culminating in a board game based on the Channel 9 TV show “Getaway”. This was a hire from the park office and was a fantastic game combining trivia, geography, travel, luck and managing money. I have threatened to buy a copy for future trips.
Unfortunately, a long weekend of relaxing, hot cross buns and Lindt carrots (i.e., the chocolate kind) is not an ideal backdrop for fun run training preparation. Apart from the physical nature of camping and a 4km walk through the Tara Bulga national park, this weekend was probably a net detractor on my fitness journey.
Fortunately, there are still 97 days to go…and we have the regular Merricks group training with Harry tomorrow. So I shall organise my gear.
RunningMoney 