Day 5: (RY) - Sneezing whilst running, bad for your neck

(RY). So, during my run this morning I was feeling great. That is until I sneezed. One sneeze and my neck froze up, and everytime I moved it I could hardly breath. How can that happen? How annoying is that (not to mention painful). Not good when you are running if you can't breath. So, I stopped for a minute and then decided that as long as my legs felt ok I should keep going. I ended up running a full 5 mins faster for my usual loop so I had to add a few blocks to the end of the run. Not bad really! Neck still sore. Think I need a physio, will try to get there tomorrow.

PS - this is a photo of the Capital Building in Boston.

Found the Groove

[co] righto back from first run past the 60 min mark (in re starting training). Happy to say I survived and also found my groove. For first time in 3 weeks starting to feel like back into training. Things are still painful, sweaty and harder than I remember, but hey...

But updated playlist and all was well. Go the trashy pop and gay euro dance music.Felt I needed a glowstick to go with the involuntary hand gestures... it would of helped light the way if nothing else... and made it easier to see as it gets darker... might stop a repeat of tripping over a speed bump and getting my arm in a cast weeks later (buts thats another post for when I run out of mater).

Anyway the point of the story (was there one?) was that I was gonna post a pic of my run (well graphs etc) to prove it happened and dazzle you all with pretty lines about HR, altitude etc... but 'gadget tax' happened. My Suunto wouldn't connect to USB cable and I have to say I gave up trying to find the USB driver to reload - maybe tomorrows activity (yeah right).



But in my journey to solve my problem I saw the new Suunto T6d... (above, I use and are a fan of Suunto, using a T6c at the moment) seems a new model designed to charge more (nothing updated just new HR strap.. but liking the colour (this is the important part of any gadget - you don't really need them, but want them & gotta have them!).

Might need to talk more about 'gadget tax' later... its bound to get me in a big way soon enough.

Day 4: Corn muffins

(ry). Ok, so I did not run again today. I was so exhausted yesterday from my run I went to bed at 9pm and didn't wake up until 7.30am this morning. This left me no time for a run. I did however manage to walk all over Northcote with Matthew in his pram.

My mission of the day, instead, was to make corn muffins. Since you can no longer purchase Jiffy Muffin Mix from David Jones (imported from the USA) I decided I would have to give it a go and use polenta to make my own. Guess what, it worked!! I have just finished off three. This means I have no choice but to get up early and go for my run.

I'm not sure if I'm training for a marathon because I want to run it, or because I want to eat as many corn muffins (and chicken chips) as I want and still fit my jeans.

Ok, so I'm sure you all want this corn muffin recipe, so here you go:

Cornmeal Muffins

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk

3 tbs vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup corn meal (coarse)

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 caster sugar (optional)

1. Heat oven to 180 d C (or 400 d F)

2. Grease muffin trays (don't use paper cups, the mix sticks to them)

3. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in milk and oil

4. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once

5. Stir until just moist. Mixture will be a bit lumpy

6. Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full

7. Bake until golden brown (around 20 mins)

8. Eat!!

Day 3: A slug crapped on my jacket!

Day 3: (Ry). I got up this morning at 6am to go for my run (since I was lazy yesterday). It was a lovely morning and I was happily running my loop, enjoying the peace and quiet (except for the very loud thumping music coming from a small gym that had an aerobics class going) thinking how perfect it was to run early in the morning.

I got to the end of my street and decided to sprint home. 10 metres into my spring I noticed what I thought was a gum tree leaf on my sleeve. I shook my arm but it stayed. I looked closely and to my horror it was a three inch long sluggie-caterpilla thing. I surprised myself by not screaming, instead I calmly looked for a twig and gave it the flick. When I got home I noticed the damn thing had crapped all over my jacket sleeve (see the photographic evidence).

Lesson of the day: Do not allow your arms or legs to brush against gum trees or bushes when you run!!

Day 2: My legs hurt!

From Ry: Ok, I did not run today. But, I have a good excuse, I think. My legs hurt! I live in Melbourne. It is FLAT here (unless you live in the Dandenongs). Yesterday I took Co's advice and ran a 9km loop around the Tamaki basin - this involved a lot of going up and down. I am not used to this. Ok, second excuse - well, none really. But, my guilt is getting me up at 6am tomorrow to run before work.

Day 2... Reality

Well now that we have committed to this goal... (in the course of 12 hours... a seed was planted and we were in... and in the space of 30 mins we had a gmail account and a blog...) thought better actually go out and run.... good times!

Week 3 back into training (post Ironman (IM) NZ recovery stretched to 5 weeks) and it seems a lot harder running 40 minutes than it did pre IM, when 3 hours was a hard run!!!

So the journey begins... the list of events for me in the next year so far is:
Melbourne Marathon - 10 Oct 2010
K2 Bike race (192 KM cycle race in the Coromandel NZ) - 30 Oct 2010
Auckland Half marathon 31 Oct 10
Tauranga Half IM - Jan 11
Boston marathon April 11

With a few more on the way to build up to events... after that maybe/hopefully triathlon age group race in US Nov 2011 and maybe Western Australia IM in Dec 2011.

So as I write that big list I figure the next step (other than training...) is budgeting! So thought I would procrastinate a little and try to sort this blog thing out. That in itself will be a challenge for me to keep this up to date and maybe a little interesting.. so will work on pictures etc..which normally are more interesting than words.....

See how we go... back soon.... ('co')

Day 1: We need a goal

The challenge has been set. Boston marathon 2011.

357 days to go.

Team Ryco.

We all need a goal. Our goal is to qualify for and run the 2011 Boston marathon (April 18th 2011).

Why? Because it's the most prestigious marathon around. Another reason? Half of Team Ryco's father ran that marathon back in 1979 which resulted in a family move to the US. The other half of Team Ryco is a obsessed triathlete who needs a world class elite marathon under her belt (just to add to other challenges!).

We need support. Follow our blogspot to check our progress over the next 357 days.

Vince, I hope you have digested this. It's not a joke.