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July 27, 2006
Ironman Appeal
It is a fairly hot day here in the Midlands, UK. This morning when I drove into work I saw some drops of rain fall on my windscreen and thought to myself that today was the day we were going to get another thunderstorm and the air will cool down a little. As it turns out, those few drops that fell just contributed to the humidity in the air and made things less pleasant than before.
But enough of that. I have something to tell you, something to ask you, and hopefully I can help someone make a dream come true, even if it is a drop in the bucket, many drops eventually does fill the bucket. I don't normally do this, but it breaks my heart to see someone as talented as this woman, seeing a dream slip away from her.
Yesterday I found out that a woman in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, won her age group during Ironman South Africa. In doing so, she qualified to go all the way to Kona and compete in the Ironman World Championships on the 21st of October. The problem is that in South Africa, the exchange rate is completely nonsense. The average salary a month is around R8000 – which roughly translates to about $1000 or £615 a month.
A return ticket from Port Elizabeth to Hawaii costs around R20 000. When she found out that she qualified (way back in March!), she paid the entry fee and decided that she would try to raise the money via various fundraisers and even her club jumped in to help, but from what I hear, she’s not had much success.
At this moment, three months later, she still hasn’t reached the halfway mark, and with every passing day, she trains her heart out, but when I spoke to her yesterday (I phoned her to find out how it was going), she fears that she’s not going to be able to make it to Kona.
I think it is heartbreaking that someone who has worked that hard won’t be able to get to take part in something that is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Is there anyone else out there that feels this way and might want to help? I’m posting this on the odd chance that someone might want to contribute to helping her get there. I’ve already contributed to her fundraising myself, but a few more drops will definitely help her.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll keep you up to date on how things are progressing, but in the meantime, if there is any way that you feel you would like to contribute or help, please email me or leave a comment and I’ll get in contact with you.
Her name is Davera Magson – if you want to see a picture, go here– on the front page she’s the one on the left and on the news section of the page, there is a bit that she wrote as well as the appeal to her club members to help with fundraising.
Posted by karinm at 10:56 AM | Comments (1)
July 25, 2006
Life
We all have good years and bad years. Good months, bad months. Down to good days, bad days. And when you've run for years on end, and then returned from the dark side and started running again, life tries to drag you back to the days of sitting on the couch, knowing every actor's name in every sitcom, and every single thing that is on television. Or for that matter, the internet.
Since I've started running again last year, I've become injured, had an incident with cows, a snake and a few bugs that felt that I was threatening their very existence. I got a recurrence of glandular fever. I became incredibly busy at work. And after all of that, I was still running. Life didn't get me down.
Until three weeks ago. I decided to call in the help of a professional to keep me on track. That's right. I got a coach. At first I thought it would only be to help me on my bike, but after a lot of chatting and realising that he helped a lot of people get to the finish line for their first Ironman, I decided to let all of my training needs with him.
So far he's made me incredibly tired, but I feel better about my training than I have in literally ages.
So tonight I was pondering all of the above and thinking about the days ahead. All this while I was on my run that was supposed to last for 60 minutes. I decided at the beginning of my run that I was going to look at my watch as little as possible. The first time I looked at it was at the top of a hill, a spot that I know is 1 mile into my run.
I then drifted back into thought for a while and just let it go. Minute after minute after minute passed.
When I came back from the land of many thoughts and ideas, I decided to have a look at my watch and I'm sure my heartrate instantaneously went sky high. I would be able to tell you how high, if only it wasn't that my watch had stopped at 1 mile - the last time I looked at it - and it was showing me a lovely 1.61km on the screen.
At first I thought I was going to scream. I had no idea how far I had run or for that matter, how long.
So very calmly, I figured that my body would know when I had run for an hour and I continued. When I stopped I reset my watch and started it again, as it logs the start time of each run. When I got home, I realised I had run a full 1 hour and 1 minute :) I'm more than happy.
Afterwards I went to measured the course, and although I only ran 8.8km, I'm quite happy with it for the time being. It will improve with time :)
Posted by karinm at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2006
What's up with the Weather?
Today started off hot and got hotter with every passing second. I half expected the pool to have no lanes when I arrived there tonight, but luckily there was some... and almost no people in the pool! Yay! We shared the lane with one other woman who is training for something, but she stopped so few times that I couldn't even chat to her to say hi. She must be a swimmer and not a runner. Runners like to chatter here and there :)
Afterwards we went to the track and had some macaroni and cheese (that I made from scratch last night) next to the track. Andy had packed us plates and appletizer and everything! Of course I couldn't go straight into a run, so we walked around the track afterwards for a while to let the food settle before we started jogging.
My legs felt incredibly heavy. Almost like I had tied a house to them and was trying to pull it apart, brick by brick. So we stopped and stretched. And jogged again. Somewhere I become comfortable and settled into a pace that didn't feel awkward.
Afterwards I stretched and relaxed and the ride home was heaven. It meant I didn't have to stand on my feet, although I had to use them to drive. After standing at work for the better half of 8 hours, I was definitely ready to get off my feet.
Tomorrow there's no swimming, but an hour of running. I'm going to have to find an excuse to write a spec at work tomorrow so I can stay off my feet :)
Posted by karinm at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2006
I tried Gels!
After a hot week we woke up to thunderstorms this morning and I could already see myself going for a swim run in the rain. I was looking forward to getting soaked, believe it or not. Of course it had to wait until this afternoon at 5pm before I would go... which meant that at 4pm the sun came out and heated up the area enough for me to be able to run in a sleeveless top today.
Since we're not lucky enough to have water fountains nearby, Andy jumped on my bike, armed with bottles of water and a bag of gels that I was dying to try out. It all started out great... and stayed that way. I tried a gel, an energy bar and a high carb drink along the route, supplemented with a LOT of water. I still can't get over the fact that I had nearly 2 litres of water and 500ml of sports drink during my two hour run today... And it worked! Its the first time in a few years that I tried running with some proper gels (was about time!), but I need to find me a flavour that I like now :)
Right now I'm lying on the couch. For some reason my feet are throbbing.
On the upside - I have a parrot predictor that doesn't say 'Sub 42km week'!
I'm going to have cashews and water now. Have a great evening!
Posted by karinm at 7:30 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2006
Painful, Inspiring
This looks completely painful :
I saw it first over here.
Very scary. Very painful. Very inspiring.
Posted by karinm at 8:21 PM | Comments (3)
July 20, 2006
The Heat Is Gone!
An update on my lip : the swelling has gone down a load. This is good news although my lower lip is still a little pouty. I'm not worried about it though, I'm sure it'll be fine by tomorrow morning.
Tonight we went to the pool and lane swimming is back in its normal slot outside. I couldn't possibly tell you how glad I was that this was so :) There was two old ladies who slowed everyone down, but it was a load of fun. I'm starting to recognise the faces in the pool. Its always the same ones and they always ask you what you're going to do on a particular afternoon.
Two kilometers later I got out the pool and since I slept in this morning (even though it was cool enough to run), I then got into my running gear and started my one hour run around the lovely cool and shady fields of the leisure centre. My legs felt like lead (I guess the swimming took more out of me than I realised), but I was just happy to be out in the open and jogging.
Some people were training their dogs on the fields and I made the mistake of running past them the first lap. I love dogs and had to stop and play with the smallest of the lot. The owner didn't seem to mind. She probably thought I was crazy to just stop while running and playing with a dog I don't know.
Afterwards we came home and Andy made the most lovely pasta and meatballs.
I'm going to go for a nice shower and nap now. Tomorrow is an off day, so I'm going to enjoy getting some sleep tonight.
Posted by karinm at 8:56 PM | Comments (2)
July 19, 2006
Me and my Big Fat Mouth
Tonight's run was going to be a fun one. It was a hot day again, which meant that I was going to go for my run in the evening when it had cooled down again. I returned from said run about 2 minutes ago.
As I started running, Andy was asking a lot of questions about my future racing plans and I was telling him a little on what I'd like to do. Considering that I'm running so slowly, I managed to keep a good conversation going with him... until about 20 minutes into the run that is. I suddenly choked up mid-sentence, my eyes watering and my tongue burning.
No, I didn't say anything to hurt myself, nor did I strain my tongue - a small bug had landed in my mouth, and given me a nice sting/bite! At first I thought it might've been a wasp, since it was stinging like you'd not believe. Then my mouth went numb. Andy laughed, trying to make me feel better, but 5 minutes later my mouth was still numb, to the point that drinking water felt odd.
Another 2 minutes went by... and my lower lip started swelling. Andy went home on the bike to fetch me some water / anti-histamines / anti-inflammatories ... but by the time he arrived, my lip was already so swollen that drinking anything feels really sore.
So here I sit. Me and my big fat mouth.
Posted by karinm at 8:58 PM | Comments (3)
Swimming Woes Continue
Yesterday afternoon I didn’t have a swim scheduled, but myself and Andy decided to go do a few laps in any case. Big was my surprise then, when I got to the leisure centre and had to hear that lane swimming was now subject to the lifeguards’ discretion. Immediately my blood boiled, which means it was probably a good thing that a few minutes later we were in the pool and cooling down.
I watched as one of the guys that always comes in during weekdays and does lane swimming, arrived and was told that there was no lane swimming yesterday. He was told to go swim in the inside pool if he wanted to do lane swimming, and considering that the water in there feels like bath water, I doubt he enjoyed his swim if he indeed even started it.
We didn’t stay long, just long enough to cool down and then we did a bit of grocery shopping.
As with the rest of the northern hemisphere, it was a blistering hot day. I didn’t dare go for my run before it cooled down and this only happened at around 9pm, but as another blogger so rightfully said, sleep when you’re dead. I went for my 60 minute run – after 20 minutes Andy stepped to the side and stretched while I carried on running in order to turn back after 30 minutes.
My heart rate was doing well, I was so proud. I kept it between 155 and 166 bpm and after 50 minutes I really thought I was going to make it through the whole run without my Forerunner going insane and beeping to get me to go slower and get that heart rate down, but then I managed to scare myself witless with my imagination. I thought I saw my friend Mr Snake and my heart rate spiked to a level I haven’t seen before. I should’ve worn my HRM the day that I saw that snake, then I’d probably have a better idea of my maximum HR.
After a minute or two of walking, my heart rate went down, but still not to a desirable level, so I finished the 60 minutes with a combination of walking and running and hoping.
I got home and slept like the dead until this morning when Andy’s alarm woke us. I phoned the leisure centre this morning to raise my complaint and had to hear (surprise surprise) that that was not what the manager had decided and that yesterday was a one-off.
We’ll see about that. Alternatively I’ll just go swim in the bathtub they have indoors :)
Posted by karinm at 8:32 AM | Comments (1)
July 17, 2006
Drown & Run
I had a good day today. I sat in a 9 hour meeting at work (
First my swim though. So, I got to the pool and as I approached the pool, I realised that they had only set out one lane for lane swimming. My blood pressure went up slightly. Right. 14 people in the lane, a 25m pool... this was SO not going to work. I floated my way to the life guard and asked him why they haven't set out a second lane.
"Because there are too many people left in the rest of the pool"
WHAT?!?! The schedule says lane swimming from 6 - 8! So calmly I told him it wasn't acceptable, as with 14 people in one lane, someone was due to drown. It took another 15 minutes before they put out the other lane... at which time swimming became a lot more enjoyable. Afterwards I had a quick word with the manager of the leisure centre and he wasn't very happy to hear that he had been disobeyed - and ensured me that it wouldn't happen again.
Oh well....
Then we started running. And I felt incredibly stupid, with me running at an incredibly slow pace, but for the first time I managed to keep my heartrate below 166 bpm! For more than 95% of the run! Okay, so I hit 207 at a very odd spot (I got scared by a stick that cracked), but I managed to keep my heartrate pretty steady!
My muscles aren't sore anymore tonight, I'm feeling really good, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week now :)
Posted by karinm at 8:47 PM | Comments (0)
Ouchies
I woke up this morning and my calves are incredibly upset about something. They're sore, unwilling to work with me even when walking and there is just no way that they'll climb ANY stairs whatsoever. I stayed in bed, telling myself that this afternoon I'll go for a run (that way my legs get to warm up all day!) and hopefully I shall. Lets not forget that I'm going for a swim as well :)
That'll teach me to go play squash before a long run!
Posted by karinm at 6:29 AM | Comments (1)
July 16, 2006
Sunny Sunday
This morning I woke up at 6 ... and 7 ... and 8 ... and 9. At which stage I was so slept out that I needed to get downstairs, get a mug of coffee and plonk myself down to watch some cartoons. Alas, the cartoons was just about to finish and I watched some Tour De France highlights instead.
At about 11, I poked Andy and mentioned that since it is such a lovely day outside, we should go for a cycle. He however remembered that I also had to do a long run today, so he suggested that I run while he cycles (something about two birds with one stone or something similar). Or course, I decided to agree.
Which meant that 30 minutes later I was ready to go outside in my running gear, with a water belt around my waist and my heartrate monitor and watch to go with it. Andy got his bike and we hit the Cloud Trail.
Considering that the aim is still to keep my heartrate under 166 bpm, I ran slowly. After about half an hour I started having trouble staying below that limit, so I walked. As soon as my heartrate got to 170, I would take a walk until it was down to 145, and then start running again. Unfortunately I'm still trying to get the hang of heartrate training and I had to walk a few times.
The fact that the temperatures were in the upper 20s didn't help much either. I felt like I was baking (I have a tan to prove that I was now!) and the water that we brought along didn't last long either. I'm going to have to remember to bring more along from now on. Everytime I hit the shadows, it felt like a blessing. Then I'd hit the sunny patches again and I'd feel like I was going to overheat (strange how I became so used to living in cool temperatures, that summer feels like I've landed in the middle of a desert).
After an hour and a half, my heartrate just wouldn't stay anywhere under 166 and I decided to call it a day. It went better than during the week, so I'm quite happy :)
Posted by karinm at 1:27 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2006
Naughtly little HR Monitor
This morning I have mixed feelings about the run I just did. I started running and it felt absolutely wonderful. Last night I got to bed at 23h00, so I felt a little tired, but I felt incredibly good after a cup of coffee. About a kilometer into the run, I saw my friend the bunny (I'm going to assume that it was the same one as yesterday) and he hopped in front of me for about 100m before disappearing again - I need to take a camera with me the next morning that I go, just in case :)
Then my heartrate monitor started playing up. It just seemed to stop transmitting. I stopped, wiped the monitor, adjusted it, and it seemed to fix the problem. A minute later it stopped picking up my heartrate again. I repeated wiping and adjusting the belt two or three times before giving up and just tried to keep a pace at which I didn't feel out of breath.
I'll have a look at changing the batteries and see if that fixes it, otherwise I'm going to give up on my Forerunner and go in search of a new gadget :)
Posted by karinm at 6:43 AM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2006
Heartrate Bunny
This morning I started running with the idea of heartrate training planted in my mind. The aim was purely to keep my heartrate at or below 166bpm. The first 30 minutes was easy. My heartrate stayed at around 164 with the occassional jump to 165 or 166 and then back down.
It was the first time that I ran on the Cloud trail since the snake run a few weeks ago. Until now I've been too afraid to go back, but this morning I figured that it was time I got onto the trail again. Snakes may be encountered, but armed with my epi-pen, I'll be perfectly okay.
As I turned off the road to join the trail, a bunny suddenly appeared from the grass and hopped in front of me as if to say - catch me! I thought for a while that I was dreaming, because this little fuzzy creature, hopped with me for about 6 minutes before turning back into the grass and probably making its way back to the starting point to wait for the next runner in need of a training partner.
Where was Andy? Wednesday and Thursday mornings he has to be at work at 7h00, which means he leaves at 6h30, and I only left for my run at 6h10, so he felt that he woudn't be able to get back in time to get ready for work and leave in time.
The run was fun, although I feel like I have a lot more energy now than when I normally run - you know, the runs where I average 178pbm or higher. I think there might be something to the HR training, but until I get used to it, I think I might get frustrated with having to run slower to keep my heartrate down.
Now I need to go get me some coffee :)
Posted by karinm at 6:24 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2006
Re-inventing the wheel
Normally I don't blog about work too much. So to have two entries in two weeks is completely unusual. Today was most amusing though and I've not laugh that hard in probably the past 3 years.
One of our clients are part of a bigger group, and their head offices have ordered an issue to get every office running on the same financial IT package. So our company was asked to apply changes that was made to a standard product, (so that it would legally fit in in the UK) for their offices in the UK - we were sent these objects from the company that did the development in Germany and it was implemented way before I joined, but today a little bug creeped in and we were contacted to "fix it".
So I open up the database, make a few coding changes to the standard code, test it... and it fails. Hmmm... change the code back... it does the same thing. Nothing different than it did before I started. Eventually I decide to check the code on the form (this is also standard)... and someone had changed the standard code behind the form to point to a different codeunit.
At this time I'm already chuckling, more at myself than anything else, but oh well. So I open up the codeunit that the form points to. I read through it and this is where I started laughing. Whoever did the coding over in Germany, had made an EXACT copy of the standard codeunit and then went around the STANDARD functionality and pointed EVERYTHING to this copy that he made.
I'm not exactly sure why, or how they managed to do this, but it must've taken them literally days. I looked at just about every form, dataport, menu and codeunit that refers to our dear standard posting routine... and it all has been changed to point to the NEW copy of the same codeunit.
After that I went through some standard forms and that was more amusing, but I'm not going to bore you with it all.
I'm just amused.
Posted by karinm at 7:33 PM | Comments (1)
Paula Radcliffe Pregnant
This morning I didn't go for a run. Instead I went down my list of RSS feeds and read a few bits and pieces of news. The biggest surprise to me was when I read that Paula Radcliffe has announced that she's pregnant - the baby is due in January - which immediately made me wonder whether she's going to compete in the London Marathon next year. Something tells me she won't, even though she says that she intends to carry on competing until 2012. She might still compete, but for the second year running, I doubt there'll be a Paula at the London Marathon.
Posted by karinm at 6:31 AM | Comments (1)
July 10, 2006
Early Morning Monday
Its getting hot out there. After a weekend of wind and thunder and more rain than we wanted, this morning the sun was out early and the temperatures got an early start. Who knows what it'll be like in another hour when I'll be sitting in traffic on my way to work.
Andy woke me this morning and reminded me that I wanted to go run. How I managed to also drag him out of bed and onto that trail, only he will know, but he did get up and join me. We didn't speak much, we were both too asleep to think about much other than that our feet were supposed to move in a running way... and not in a walking.
Afterwards he jumped through the shower and went to work. Which leaves me sitting on the couch, considering getting ready for work and getting some breakfast :)
Posted by karinm at 5:50 AM | Comments (0)
July 6, 2006
Stress Release
Since yesterday I've been ill. Not actually a bug, but all stress related, I haven't been able to hold down fluids or food since about noon. The first two days at the new company has turned out to be a lot more stressful than anyone could have foreseen and I'm starting to doubt the choice I made when it came to the offers I had to consider.
Yesterday afternoon Andy dragged me to go for a smallish jog, but I felt so sick that I just couldn't. So after some negotiations, we somehow landed at the pool where the first few lengths were hell. Then I got into a stride and after swimming for a kilometer, I felt a load better. It was drizzling with rain, but strangely enough the pool was full of people.
Tonight we have a run planned - and I think I'll do it even if I still feel ill. If swimming releases that much stress, just think what running will do!
I'll give it a chance - if within 3 weeks I'm still as stressed as I am now, I'll have to leave my job and consider making a career change. Its no use working in a job you don't at least enjoy 80% of the time.
Posted by karinm at 6:25 AM | Comments (1)
July 4, 2006
First Days
My first day at my new company held in a little more than I expected from my first day. I expected to be shown the offices, maybe my desk, and meet a few of my future colleagues. What I got was a cup of coffee, a tour around the offices before anyone else even arrived and finally, I was taken on site where I met a few of my colleagues, got some work to do... and worked an hour and a half of overtime on my first day. That is IT for you.
I arranged with Andy to meet him at the pool at 18h00, but had to phone him just before 17h00 to let him know that I wasn't going to make it. At 18h45 we arrived back at the offices and I managed to make it to the pool just after 19h00. So we swam 500m and then came home - I'm utterly and completely exhausted and ready to just pass out (explains why I'm lying in bed instead of sitting downstairs).
I already know that I'll be in the office tomorrow - I'll most likely be less tired tomorrow then!
Posted by karinm at 8:45 PM | Comments (0)