Parkrun 3

I went to my third Parkrun today, and bumped into Yvette right at the start. I don't have an issue with doing things alone, but it did feel nice to meet up with a friendly face. My time in Brisbane so far has been pretty isolated thanks to a demanding work + uni schedule, so now that uni is over it feels good to get the chance to be more social :)

We didn't exactly run together along the route, Yvette is coming back from injury whereas I am coming 'back' from zero fitness, plus I'm new to trails. I felt strong today though, and pushed harder at the start. Yvette wasn't far behind me, and her encouragement helped me score my fastest kilometre (5:45) since returning to running - including road running. She also caught me up during the second half and yelled encouraging things pretty much the whole way back. I have no idea how she could keep shouting at that point - I could barely breathe! 

Yvette at the front, me at the back

At the final hill up to the finish line, Yvette stormed past me and a whole bunch of other people in a really strong push. It was impressive! I felt inspired, and when the hill levelled out at the top I put in a sprint and managed to catch the group who had pulled away from me up the hill, passing a few of them over the line. It felt good!

I forgot to stop Strava at the end, but the Parkrun time was 36:54

I felt strong on this run, I think I'm finally feeling effects from a few weeks of running, gradually getting stronger. And I shaved nearly a minute off last week's PB, so that made me feel good! So good in fact that I think I will commit to this trail running malarky, and buy trail shoes!

Trailblazers!

Yesterday I was invited to come along to a Trailblazers Run Coaching session. This was taking place in Bunyaville park, but in a different part to the Parkrun. Today's session was a steady, relatively easy run aimed at beginners and also as a recovery run for some people who had done a 50km event the previous day!

I was hoping to meet Yvette there, but she had gotten stuck somewhere and wasn't able to make it. It was no bother though - there were several other newbies coming along, and we all ended up introducing ourselves and getting along just fine. I'm noticing that trail running includes lots of really friendly, supportive, and great people, making it an ideal activity for people wanting to make friends, or who don't have a running buddy already.

This run was led by Michelle, who runs Trailblazers. She had also done the 50kms the previous day, so it was impressive to see how fresh she seemed on the trails! Michelle led us on different sections, with lots of stops in between to regroup and give a chance to drink enough water, and for a group photo too!

Once we were thoroughly warmed up, Michelle then gave a bit of a coaching session. Today's focus was running up hills, making sure to keep good posture, cadence, and short strides, pumping the arms to help keep momentum. I am pretty terrible at inclines, let alone proper hills, so it's good for me to have this practice. I need to add more hill training in as I develop a running routine.

By the end, we had run 6.4kms. This is a measly distance compared to most of the veteran trail runners I have met, but it's my longest trail distance so far. I'm still enjoying it, I just need to get fitter and stronger!

Parkrunning 2

Today saw me getting up early again (on a Saturday!) to head to Bunyaville for my second trail run at Bunyaville Parkrun.

There was a really good attendance again, with friendly and helpful volunteers to welcome everyone and ensure the event goes ahead smoothly.

This time on the run I wasn't feeling too good. I had been a little ill with my sinuses through the week, and I felt like it was really hard work just to keep going around the track. Somewhere near the halfway point I passed another runner, who yelled some encouragement at me, and we ended up having a little bit of a joke together. I pulled away from her, but she caught back up towards me further on and carried on yelling encouragement. When I had to break and walk a little she caught right up to me, and encouraged me to keep going round the rest of the way. She was awesome - so much energy and such a positive attitude, it really helped. She completely left me for dust on the final uphill section towards the finish line, but with her encouragement I was nearly half a minute faster than last time (my first Parkrun PB!).

Parkrun time 37:52

My new running mate, Yvette, invited me for coffee after the run, and I gladly accepted the invitation. We met up with a few others, and I was fascinated and impressed by the tales of their distance runs, stage runs, ultra runs, and so on - plenty of things for me to dream of aiming for in the future. And less far off, I got invited along to a trail session tomorrow afternoon too - I see trail running in my future...

Parkrunning

Today I did my first Parkrun, which was also my first trail run!

I turned up to the start point for the Bunyaville Parkrun, a 100% trail route, feeling quite excited. I got lots of kudos from the volunteer I approached to ask about how it all worked, as I was not only there for the first time, doing a trail run for my first one, but also I had come alone. I'm kind of used to turning up to stuff alone - I think it would be more sad to sit home alone and miss out on stuff, than to get out there and do stuff alone - but apparently some people find that a bit impressive, so I got to feel kind of good from the positivity :)

Parkrun is a free, timed, 5km run organised at many locations in many different countries. You register online first, and that gives you a barcode which is then used every week to save your run times to your profile. This profile keeps a record of all your runs and keeps track of your PB (personal best).

My slow run - the proper time 38:18 - I always mess up Strava recordings!

Bunyaville is a fairly hilly trail run, with just a little bit of single track amongst the slightly wider bits. The trail is shared with mountain bikers, so we give way to them - must be the only time mtbs are not bottom of the trail-priority pile! I wasn't fast, especially uphill, but I finished with a smile and will definitely be doing it again!

(Almost) Trail Blazing

Way back at the start of my time in Brisbane, before I began this year's uni course (a distance ed Graduate Certificate in Human Services) and before I got my current job, I had plans. Lots of them. For all kinds of fun adventury-type things!

I made a list of some of them here, and looking back over that list I have actually actioned more of them than I would have thought, given how busy I've ended up being (I should do a re-cap at the end of the year, see if I can tick them all off!).

www.wildrunners.com.au

Anyhoo, one of the items on the list was to have a go at trail running. I had written to a group called Wild Runners, who seemed like a good bunch from what I had read online, and then, well... I didn't really do anything else... I made a couple of half-hearted attempts to get up in time for the antisocial 5.30am starts, and then between uni, a trip back to the UK, then starting work on top of uni, I simply gave up.

Fast forward to September, and I decided to pop into a trail running shop to ask about trail shoes, with a view to saving up for some if I decided I liked trail running. It turned out that the shop, The Trail Co., is run by the same people as Wild Runners! So they managed to persuade me to drag myself out of bed the following day at the horrendous hour of 4am, so that I could meet them for a run conditioning session.

Somehow I did manage to get up, and even feel enthusiastic enough to follow through with getting ready and heading out of the house. Very unlike me to be so human early in the morning!

I drove to the area at nearby Mt Coot-Tha where the session was to be held, and despite such an early start everyone was really welcoming and friendly.

Tim led the session, with a mixture of strength and stability exercises after a bit of a warm up. Some of the exercises were pretty funny to watch, so there was lots of laughing involved too!

We were working too hard for me to take photos at the session, but this one is from a similar session via the Wild Runners Facebook page.

I worked hard through all the variations of squats, lunges and various plyometric exercises. At first I was amazed at how well I was keeping up with the group, given that I had only started back at running some short distances a couple of weeks before. The following day I realised that it had been enthusiasm rather than fitness that had gotten me through - I suffered the most excruciating DOMS for several days after!!

It was great to get out though, and I even felt enthusiastic enough to sign up for the Bunyaville Parkrun, which is a 5km Parkrun, but all on trail. It sounds like a great way to begin trail running for me, although this week I'll have to give it a miss thanks to the dreaded DOMS...

In The Pipeline...

This post is mostly to remind me to / oblige me to get out and do stuff, even though I don’t yet have adventurous friends here in Brisvegas!

Since arriving a few days ago, I have:

1. Signed up to Warm Showers, if you haven't heard of it, it's like couchsurfing but for cycle tourists. A few of my Townsville friends are involved, and it seems a great way to meet interesting cycle tourists and be a part of their adventure, as well as helping you out with your own cycle tours!

http://www.warmshowers.org/

2. Visited Bunyaville Conservation Park, an area not too far away that has mountain biking trails (as well as walking and horse riding) that I can check out. I got chatting to a few mtbers while I was there, and they all seemed friendly, so hopefully I can go alone to start with but still get help if I get into trouble!

3. Written to Wild Runners; they are a trail running club, and I decided that I fancy having a go at trail running. I have never done trail running before as I have always been worried about my injury-prone ankles, but I decided that I should give it a go as it has always appealed to me – plus it has to be more exciting than running along the road! They wrote back really quickly and seemed positive and friendly, so I’m looking forward to joining in with them very soon.

www.wildrunners.com.au

4. Got myself on Gumtree and picked up my own first kayak! I am pretty excited about this one, partly as I have never had my own kayak before, and partly because this one seems like it was a bit of a good buy. There were plenty of kayaks for sale on Gumtree down here, but I went for a sea/touring kayak. I like kayaking rivers and white water, but I would never do that alone, plus I don’t know where around here I would be able to do that. This kayak, a Ysak RTM Touring Kayak, will be great for continuing with the sort of thing I was doing up in Townsville, and I plan to graduate up to doing overnight (or perhaps even longer) trips along the coast or to nearby-ish islands. 

My Ysak RTM Touring Kayak :)

5. I would also like to get back into rock climbing, so I have been looking up the many climbing walls/gyms and rock climbing clubs in the area - more work still to do on that front.

I think that should be enough to keep me busy for a while! :)