This Years Races

Been um-ing and ah-ing about what to run this year, especially whether or not to run a marathon...pretty much certain Ill avoid the marathon and focus on some great fun 10-20-30 length races....keen though to make this the year of Chi, the year of enjoying running and the year of going out hard and staying that way...

Here are the races i am planning

1.-April Linfield: 10km: horrible hills

2.-May Sydney SMH Half

3.-June Woodford to Glenbrook 25km: never done this before and it would be my longest trail run

4.-August Jabulani Challenge 23km: my fave run last year

Pub2Pub: never miss

5.-September Sydney Blackmoore's Half: time to beat last years dissapointing time

6.-October SAN Run4Life 10km

7.-November Bare Creek Trail St Ives 10km: short but sweet local run

The highlights will be Woodford to Glenbrook and Jabulani...the low point will be the SAN and Linfield which are horrible hilly courses on the road...

As far as Marathoning goes I hope my one outing will not be the only one i do in my life, lets see.

Cruising

Just a short note to celebrate the fact that I have now been running consistently now for about four weeks with no serious niggles, strains, relapses, tendonitis, sore ankles to speak of and that chi-running in demonstrating the effect I hoped it would have.....the foam roller has cobwebs on it, the rolling pin (called Cyril) in being used in the kitchen not on my legs (yuk!) and i am not spending half my time stretching out knots and strains...

If youd asked me three months ago if this was possible Id have laughed...I really was getting very frustrated and fed up but now feel completely free again.

The current state of affairs also isnt a result of any easing off of running...Ive taken on some major challenges, including Pidgeon House mountain (nearly twice in a row), plenty of 2 hour bush runs, hill running, tempo, etc.

Overall my conclusion is that all my problems were postural...I was smashing my legs and feet into the pavement and The Beast was not helping one bit...

Now Im happy with Brooks Adrenalin but am seriously contemplating taking it down a step further. These beauties look good!

Summer Running

What a fantastic two weeks of summer running I have had down the South Coast in Manyana. Thanks to my chi-running coaching i ran more kms than ever before, on harder terrain, with minimal pains and strains.

The highlight was a run from Manyana Beach to Monument Beach, a run that involves alot of softish sand running, bush tracks, rocks and some road....a 12kms arduous run that was the regular jaunt with my friend Alison.

The second highlight was a run up Pidgeon House Mountain, a steep mountain run with 750metre elevation.....lots of kiddies came too, walking, while I played the hero and tried to beat my record of 1hr7mins return.

I made the top in 38mins (a record) but came down slower than last year, amounting to a 30 second pb in the end of 1hour5mins30secs.

The total for 12 days was around 80kms, most of it off road, amounting to a massive vote of confidence for chi-running and the year to come!!