Sunday, February 22, 2009

Beautiful beach trails

The plan for this weekends run was for a 2 hour run. This time I started with two running buddies and managed to keep up with them for 1.5 hour. This meant I only had to run by myself for the last 30 minutes - although the last 30 minutes is also the hardest bit to run by yourself when you are feeling tired and just want the running to finish! As usual to distract myself I started thinking about stuff, one thing that surfaced was that how fortunate I was to have this fantastic beach trail to run along that was clean and relatively unpopulated. In comparison when I was India last year there was nowhere that I could run freely outside. There was no free space, the footpaths were crowded with people, dogs, goats, cows and the roads were very busy with cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, motorbikes and duk duks. They definitely didn't have any lovely beach trails to run on - there really isn't any available land and if there was people tend to build a home on any free space, hence all my running was done inside on the treadmill! So I guess what I took out of this was that infrastructure - footpaths, good lighting, bike paths, sports facilities play a really important role in people being able to be active and so people in disadvantage communities - like in rural Australia really do have a difficult time trying to stay active. Go out and take that beach walk or run along the river or bike in the hills and be really grateful that we have all of these fantastic facilities for us to use!

Training run: Time 2h07min, Distance 21.4km, Location Middle Brighton Baths to Ricketts Point and back, Temp 22C.
Gmap of run course: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2578520

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Changing Some Day to NOW!

Yesterday I did my 25km run again and although this time I started running with 3 other friends they were all too speedy for me and once again I ended up running for 2hr by myself, more thinking time. The events of the past week, the Victorian bushfires, the extreme devastation of those people living in the small towns is beyond comprehension. It does however put things into perspective, particularly the importance of family and friends. I think it is also a reminder to us all that 'some day' doesn't always come around and to make sure that 'some day' becomes now. So right now I am in the process of changing 'one day I want to raise funds and awareness for cardiovascular research' into 'This Year I will run two marathons in two deserts to raise funds for cardiovascular research in Indigenous Australians!'

Training run: Time 2h32min, Distance 25.32km, Location Middle Brighton Baths to Beaumaris and back, Temp 24C.
Gmap of run course: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2546939

Sunday, February 8, 2009

On the long run

This morning I went for a 2.5 hr training run, initially I had planned to run with my regular running buddy but he was injured so I had to enlist another running buddy. My new running buddy had been sick all week and unfortunately he couldn't maintain my pace and I had to leave him behind. This left me with about 2 hours to run with no one to chat with and no music to listen to (I don't wear my MP3 player when I am running with friends). So lots of thinking time and one question that I pondered which is often asked of me is 'why do I run?' One big reason is for my health, I have a strong family history of diabetes and also osteoporosis and I want to do what I can to reduce the chance of either happening to me. One of the best ways to avoid diabetes is maintaining a healthy weight and regular exercise. The great thing about regular exercise is that it helps in weight maintenance but also of importance is that regular moderate/intense activity also helps maintain good cardiovascular health, provides weight bearing exercise to help build bone mass and has also been shown to play a role in good mental health - reducing stress. I find that running is the most time efficient exercise and although I can't actually say I always enjoy running, I can say with confidence that I enjoy finishing a run and I always feel better emotionally after a run - so thats one of the reasons I run!

Training run: Time 2h33min, Distance 25.32km, Location Middle Brighton Baths to Beaumaris and back, Temp 22C.
Gmap of run course: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2546939

Friday, February 6, 2009

Creation of a blog

Okay well this is my first attempt at creating a blog lets hope it works. I am just in the process of formalising my fundraising/sponsorship proposal and then hope to send it out to various companies. Wish me luck!