The One Where Lance Armstrong Says 'Congratulations' and I Get a Short-Term Goal

This week my three children were away for a few days with their grandparents so Tom and I took the opportunity to go for a really long walk along the river from our house to Point Walter (about a 9.5km round trip). It wasn't an 'official' training run, it was just a walk, so I used the Nike + app to track speed and distance. The distance was the longest I have ever walked so far at a fast pace and -  a cool feature of the app - Lance Armstrong's voice popped up and said 'congratulations' afterwards for setting a PB (that's what we marathoners like to call a peronal best). What a sweet guy! I thought he sounded genuinely pleased for me.

(As an aside, Lance has completed the New York marathon twice. He recorded times of under three hours in both and reportedly said that the marathon was the hardest physical thing he had ever done. This from the guy who rides up mountains in France for fun. I am in So.Much.Trouble.)

I completed Week 3 of the Couch Potato to 5K app. Hoorah! But guess what? I am changing pre-training plans again. I am indecisive by nature, yes, but I don't blame myself as much as I blame my astrological sign (Librans are notorious for being unable to make their minds up and I really am the uber-Libran on this particular matter). It's not a massive change though -  I am only switching from the 'Couch Potato to 5K' app to the 'Couch Potato to 10K' app, although the 10K app does involve 60 minutes rather than 30 minutes of training each session.

The reason I changed was that I have been online to the WA Marathon Club's website to look at running events in Perth. The one event I really want to do this year is the Round the Bridges (Causeway and Narrows)  run which will be held on April 10th.

Not quite sure why but this event is the one which, if I can do, I will regard myself as a runner. And, yes, I know I have signed up for a freaking marathon run of 42km but I think that distance is so far outside of what I can comprehend that is it a bit meaningless at the moment. That route around the Bridges is so familiar to me and within my current sights that to do it would really be something. I calculated that if I start at Week 4 of the 10K app next week, I will finish the whole thing just in time for the Round the Bridges Run - which is slightly over 10km (10.5km to be precise).  So, I now have a short-term goal. Hoorah for short-term goals! Does anyone else want to do the Round the Bridges with me?

The One Where I Get a Sore Knee and Reveal My New Running Technique

Guess what, dear Readers? I had a bit of tendonitis in my knee at the beginning of this week. I'm just a bit excited because that sort of makes me a runner. And complaining about my tendonitis sounds like something a real marathoner would do. (Except a real marathoner can probably run for more than a couple of minutes which is how I got mine. Which is just a bit sad.)

Fortunately, the lovely Dee is a physiotherapist and has some ultrasound equipment at home so she gave my knee a bit of a going over in her kitchen.  I am laughing in the picture, not because ultrasound is inherently funny, but because the last time I got this close to an ultrasound was shortly after delivering a 4.3kg baby and Dee said something silly (and, frankly, inappropriate) just before this photo was taken. 

The lovely Dee does some ultrasound on my knee. 

In terms of training, I have switched to the Couch Potato to 5kms app, as I said last post. Given the sore knee, I did my first train of the week at Week 2 (which had a maximum of 90 seconds of jogging) just to see how it went. My knee didn't freak out a bit - it kept calm and carried on so I shifted up into Week 3 for the rest of the training week. I thought the three minutes would be hard because I'd only managed it once before but then I got this very helpful advice in an email from the lovely James (yes, I'm calling you lovely, James! Did you ever think that would happen?) about his patented running technique.

"I used to think I could not run continuously but it is because I was doing it wrong.  Technically running occurs when both your feet are off the grounds at regular intervals.  You just need to slow down and do what I like to call the “Nana Shuffle” named primarily after my friend who I run with who is really old (even slightly older than you!) and is therefore referred to as ‘Nana’"

Aaaah, the Nana Shuffle! The secret to jogging success! Somehow calling it the Nana Shuffle took the pressure off - I just imagined myself in sensible shoes and a flowery dress and I managed the three minutes just fine for each training run. I went slowly but I also kept my feet quite low on the ground which made all the difference. Next week, Week 4 of the app, involves a 5 minute jogging period - we'll see how the Nana Shuffle takes me through the hitherto unbroken 5 minute jogging barrier. Thank you James! As a reward I will allow you to donate to WorldVision's SEE project. And hoorah for the Nana Shuffle!

By the way, if you think this sounds like fun and would like to join the New York Marathon team there are still 5 spots left. Registrations for the remaining spots close on Tuesday 8th February. To register interest  visit: www.everydayhero.com.au/event/worldvisionnym2011