Sunday 10 Jul 2011 by anthonydonnelly@yahoo.com at Garmin Connect - Details

Sunday 10 Jul 2011 by anthonydonnelly@yahoo.com at Garmin Connect - Details

Aisling

Aisling
Originally uploaded by Anthony's World

The taper

For the Running for Premature Babies team:

Tapering is the art of getting to the start line in the best possible shape, fit and rested.
For the half marathon I suggest:

2 weeks to go.
- You should have completed your last long run on the Sunday two weeks out from race day.
- Reduce the volume of your training by about 25%.
- Wednesday night will be the last hard session for most.
- On the Sunday before the race, run 45-60mins. Experienced runners can include 20-30mins of tempo or race pace running.
Alternatively, do a 5-8km race such as the Mother's Day Classic fun run.

1 week.
- Drop the volume to about 50% of your normal load.
- Your week might look something like this:
- Mon: rest
- Tue: Easy run, 6-10km.
- Wed: 2km warm up, some drills, 4x100m strides, 2km warm down.
Alternatively, 6-10km run, either easy or with 2/3km at race parce
- Thu: Rest. Last day to do Pilates or Yoga, boxercise, circuit training or whatever. Keepit it light if exercising.
- Fri: 6km-8km easy run OR rest.
- Sat: 5 min warm up. Drills. 4x100m run throughs. 5 min warm down. No more than 20 mins of running.
- Sun: Race day

IMG_1288

IMG_1288
Originally uploaded by Anthony's World

Just a few thoughts on running style:

Stance - Run tall and relaxed.

Head - Look straight ahead. This will place your head nicely in line with your spine.

Once your head is positioned correctly, the rest of your body tends to follow suit and vice versa.

Shoulders - Keep them relaxed, low and open, enabling you to breathe properly.

If you feel your shoulders sneaking up to your ears or geting sore, scrunch them up high and drop them, from time to time.

Arms and hands - Keep your forearms parallel to the ground. Your wrists are straight and your hands held in a loose fist, as if you are holding a roll of 20c coins, or a mini ice cream cone.

As your arms swing, your hands shouldn't cross the mid line of your tummy. Your hands will move between the top of your hips and the bottom of your ribs.

When sprinting or running uphill, you'll find that your hands will move higher.

Feet and legs - Land mid foot, not on your heels. As it hits the ground your foot should be underneath you, not out in front.

Push off strongly.

As you sprint or run uphill, you'll find that you'll move on to the balls of your feet.

Leg turnover X stride length = speed.

Remember our drills? High knees, butt kicks and bounding? The aim is to promote leg turnover and optimum stride length.

As distance runners, we value leg turnover more than stride length.

Shorter, faster strides, with low knee lift is what we aim for.

Everybody is different, of course and experience will tell us what combination of turnover and stride length works for each of us.

Don't worry too much about this for the half marathon in 4 weeks, but it' something to think about in the medium term.

Breath - I breathe in and out of my mouth. I need more oxygen than I can get breathing through my nose.

Fatigue - As your tire, focus on your form. Try not to look down or let your head dip or wobble.

Try not to round your shoulders or bend at the waist. Keep your hands down so that the move within the range of your abdomen. Keep your hips lifted.

Hills - Going up - you might find yourself leaning a little more forward than normal. You may want to shorten your stride and increase the rate of your leg turnover. Use your arms and core strength to help you to the top.

Don't pause at the top of the hill, keep the momentum going. Lengthen your stride back to normal.

Going downhill - Lengthen your stride, tilt your head slightly forward and relax.

Be careful though as running downhill is much more stressful on the body than running on the flat.

Don't get too hung up on any of this, just enjoy your running.

350 Fish

IMG_0585
Originally uploaded by Anthony's World

Cookie Monster

A cat from Twistina's 5 minute delights.

Nice easy 11km today, with 10x100m strides.
Tomorrow I will be running 34km.

It's fascinating to see how a child's language skills develop.
Cillian is now 2 and a half and even in the last couple of weeks, we are hearing new phrases and more complex sentences.
He has almost completely dropped talking about himself in the third person, which is a little sad as it means he will probably never play cricket for Australia and now says 'My....'.
He is applying logic to his verb usage, such as 'The birdy flied away'. It's not correct in this instance and it's something that we would not say, so he, perhaps unconsciously has applied a basic rule for verbs. Learning the exceptions will take time.

'Cool', 'My...', 'Daddy naughty, Cillian not naughty', 'Daddy silly'. 'My not want it'. 'There the go'. 'My big funny'. 'Go green. 'Go fast.'

Cillian woke early this morning. He wasn't interested in coming into our bed, so I got up with him. At 6am, I was ready for my run, but the little man was not in the best of moods and wanted to come with me rather than play with his toys.

Me: Daddy is going running now Cillian.
Cillian: My going running!
Me: Daddy is going to fast.
Cillian: My go fast.

We negotiated that he would accompany me in the jogger, but he reneged when we got to the door. I had to bribe him with a yogurt bar. He needs food to improve his mood.

Starting the second 6 week cycle of my marathon training program. 110km this week.

Cillian seems to have elevated his language and conversation skills in the last few weeks. We notice definite spikes and plateaus. Within the last week we have heard the words or phrases: 'Cool', 'Catch me', 'Daddy is silly, Cillian is not silly' and 'My big funny'.

The last phrase was used in his first joke. Cillian and I were walking across a park in Maroubra near a friend's house. There was more than a little dog shit around which I had warned him about. A few minutes later he stopped dead and said 'Doggie dirt', then turned around with a smile and said 'My big funny'. There was no dog dirt. His first joke and it was about poo.

First day if training on the program for the Gold Coast Marathon. 1 session down, 107 more to go.
I found it hard to get up this morning, but did a little later than I wanted. I left about 6:20 and it was still fairly dark.
I ran a 6km loop at between 15km and 1/2 marathon pace, in 25:52. Its a slow loop, so the time is not important, other than it was about where I wanted. All up I did 14km.

All Hail the Queen of snooze

Aisling is such an easy baby to mind. She likes two good naps in the day and sleeps from 10pm through to 7 or 8am. When she is up she smiles and chats and likes to be entertained. She doesn't cry unless she wants a feed or to go to bed.
We didn't do a lot today as when she was awake I had to wait for a guy to collect our old Kookaburra cooker. Then she went for a snooze. We had a quick trip to the library and the shop.

Today I start 3 months of parental leave, looking after my lovely baby girl.

Well, I thought that Channel 9's Winter Olympic Games coverage could not get any worse, but it did. They showed complete disregard for the event and sports fans by joining coverage of the ice hockey final in the third period. Canada Vs USA is probably the biggest Winter Games event for decades. When they deigned to show us the game, it was already 2-1 to Canada.
Thankfully they graciously allowed us to see the extra time period.

Now they are showing us the first two periods, as if they are doing us a favour.

Eddie Maguire, Mick Molloy, homophobic comments, too much talk, not enough action and now this.

The sound of silence

Both little ones are asleep.
Sssshhhhh.

Swim time for Cillian

Time to get Cillian ready for his weekly swimming lessons. He loves swimming.

One more last shot at Henry