School holidays, even better than this – Summer School holidays in Australia, meaning I now have a good seven weeks off before heading back to work. I have made myself a goal this year to continue to commit to my weekly running schedule of every week day, hopefully I will be able to build on what I have managed to do throughout the last three months of the year. While it is a slim chance, there is still a possibility of me bringing up the 700km for the 90 Day Challenge, especially after what has proven to be one of the best running weeks that I have experience so far this year. Who knows, I might even be able to build towards hitting a 100km week next week based on the progress this week and how I feel. Regardless of what happens over the next week, one thing that I know about myself is how goals orientated I am. This 90 Day Challenge has really pushed me to commit. Knowing it will come to an end on the 29th of December has got me thinking about what comes next. I have decided to keep going with setting goals and started another challenge from today (11th December) called the “Summer Challenge”. I will write about this once the 90 Days has finished, there will be a couple of weeks overlap, but I will try and run 450km over the Summer holiday break. I big ask – let’s see how that goes.

Being school holidays, we have headed away for some relaxation the before the Christmas rush. This is a great chance to rest, relax, and recover after the busy school year. Before heading down to “Busso” on the Monday afternoon I started off the week with a 16km run which included two laps around Lake Monger. I didn’t set any records for times completed, but doing it in 1:28:49 was a solid effort to start the week.

Tuesday morning saw me start my Busselton runs. I had gotten on maps to try and work out distances and a couple of different courses. My goal will be to complete a run from where we are staying in West Busselton to Siesta Park – on the map it says that it is located 10km away – after one of my runs this week I have since found that it is a little further away than that! I completed an easy 12.62km on the Tuesday morning in a time of 1:07:07. The run is quite flat which could lead to some faster times, however, there is a killer easterly blowing which will slow my return when it is a head wind.

Wednesday morning saw me increased my distance slightly, completing 14.5km. I did a similar route with a slight twist – heading first towards Busselton and doing a loop the jetty precinct before heading back out towards Dunsborough. There a little loop path that I utilised for my turn around just before Abbey Road Beach Resort, I then headed back to Busselton Jetty before finishing any home.

Thursday, my second half marathon and I set a PB for the distance coming in at 1:55:22 which is running at 5’17” per km. I combined the distances of doing the jetty and then also ran further towards Siesta Park. I didn’t get anywhere near it, turning around once past the Abbey Road Beach Resort precinct. I think there’s going to be a decent way further to go to get to Siesta Park!

Friday morning saw me ease off the distances in a recovery sort of effort. I complete 12.46km in a slower time of 5’36” per km.

I have been really happy with the progress this week. I initially thought that I might try to run Saturday and Sunday as well, but then thought having two days to recover is probably a wise idea. Next week, I am going to try and hit the 100km for a week – I’d love to get to Siesta Park at least once. Maybe Monday will be the day!

This week has seen me reach a new milestone, completing my first half marathon distance. It isn’t something that I set out to do at the beginning of the week, rather just something that evolved as the week continued due to it being the staff week at the end of the school term.

The week started with me completing 19km on the Monday, I completed this distance by just extending my previous 16km run by doing another circuit of the Manning Bridge and back to the overpass bridge back to school. I felt pretty good, completing it in reasonable time at 1:41:56 which is 5’22” per kilometre. It did get me thinking about what it would take for me to complete a half marathon, perhaps this would be the week it would be possible? I decided to wait and see how I pulled up after the longest run that I had completed to date.

Tuesday saw me feel pretty good, although a little tight and fatigued. I decided to keep to my routine from last week and did a lighter session, completing 12.5km at a slower time per km of 5’28” per km. The test would come the following day, I decided that this would be the day for the half marathon if everything went to plan.

Wednesday morning I was up and at school earlier than usually to commence the 21.1km distance. I had done some planning on what I would need to do to complete it. I figured that it would be the same course as the 19km but with an additional two laps of the ovals on school grounds to bring up the required distance. The run felt good, I completed my half marathon at 5’18” per kilometre, completing 21.2km in a time of 1:52″24. I knew that the legs would be tired from this effort, so I kept the compression socks on all day to provide some extra support. Again I thought I would wait and see how I pulled up before Thursday to judge the distance I would run.

Thursday I reduced my distance again, completing only 12.5km which was done at my slowest time for the week per km at 5’38” per km. I managed to complete it so I was satisfied overall. Friday saw me take a rest day, this was due to me not being able to get school early due to other family commitments.

Overall, I was satisfied with the week’s efforts. I completed 65.3km over four runs of the week – a great effort. Next week I am on holidays and I am hoping to take the running to a new level over the holidays. Who knows, there might still be a chance of me hitting the goal of 700km for the 90 day challenge – it will all depend on the next couple of weeks.

This last week has proven a good example of how consistency can win the day. I found that it was the first week of increasing my distances for a number of weeks after the side strain. I started with a Monday run of just over 12km which was completed in just over an hour and two minutes. Tuesday saw me continue to build on this, I decided to stretch myself with a longer run, completing just over 16km with an average time of 5’10” per km meaning it was completed in just under 1 hour and 23 minutes. Wednesday saw me return to a shorter distance, coming in at just over 12.5km. This was done intentionally to try and balance the load on my legs, I am aware of previous injuries from over use and don’t want to repeat the same errors. Thursday saw me completing a longer run, coming in at just over the 16km mark again before finishing the week with a 12km run.

I am happy with how the progress has gone, my legs have felt really good. I am looking forward to resting up for a couple of days before re-hitting the pavement next week. Hopefully, I will be able to keep building on the week.

Week 8 has proven to be a really good one for me in my ongoing progress back after the strain to my side. I managed to complete 2 x 12km runs throughout this week!

The week started with only doing a short 5km run. This was mainly due to me running at a much later time due to not being able to get to work until after 7:00am. I still wanted to get both my personal prayer and saxophone practice in before the start of the teaching day which meant that would only be possible with less time on the path. The run went quite well, completing the 5.2km in a time of 26:22 which is 5’04 per km.

Tuesday saw the first longer run, I was quite apprehensive about this one! I managed to be on the road running before it clocked over 5:30am. This is just as well due to the expected high temperatures, I really wanted to get it all done. Overall, the run went well. My calves did feel tight at various points throughout the run which was to be expected as it is almost a month of lighter running. I did, however managed to do a reasonable time, averaging a pace of 5’16” per km which meant the 12km was done in 1:03:40. Tuesday night saw me pull out my new compression sleeves for my calves for the first time. I actually slept in them throughout the night to try and help in the recovery after the run.

Wednesday saw me return to a lesser distance, the 5km circuit. This was not due to soreness but because of practicality. Band rehearsals start at 7:00am and there’s no way for me to get in the run plus my personal prayer time that I have been having in the school chapel everyday. I had hoped to get up 30 minutes earlier (4:30am) but, yeah, that didn’t happen – something to work for over the Summer perhaps? The run went well, but a bit slower than Monday’s time with me coming in at 30:01 for the 5.34km which is a 5’37” average pace.

Thursday saw me undertake my second 12km run for the week. Again, I had hope to get up a little earlier than normal to ensure that I’d have a good practice session as well on my saxophone. Unfortunately, the alarm went off at 4:30am, but I didn’t get up. My time was good and consistent compared to earlier in the week, completing the 12km in 1:03:24 which is an average pace of 5’17”.

Friday has seen me finish with the shorter run of 5km. I had a lot of work to get done before a planning day which meant I needed to get out there and get back in – the extra 30 minutes would be valuable. The run kept the consistency in pace to my other runs of the 12km, but a little slower the the 5km pace with me coming in a 5’33” per km with 5.33km completed over 29:40.

Next week is going to be different again as I am out on Professional Development for a Lote of it. This means a few different run courses, and who knows, maybe I cam stretch that distance a little further as well once or twice!

Last week proved to have some good steps forward towards recapturing the early form of the challenge, particularly in being able to run five days in the week. Hopefully, Week 8 will see me be able to start to increase the overall distances that I am covering.

Monday’s run was probably the most challenging to complete, not due to it being the beginning of the week but rather due to a bout of food poisoning. I didn’t sleep well on the Sunday evening, up for a significant part of the night with stomach pains, sweating and feeling really hot and flushed. When I got to my usual running place, instead of heading straight out, I needed to find a toilet where I was for next twenty-five minutes before being able to get started. I had intended to do a 10km run, however this got reduced to 5km just incase I needed to get back to the bathroom in a hurry. Luckily I didn’t.

The remainder of the week went quite well running wise. I kept with maintaining the 5km rather than pushing limits. This was done for two reasons, firstly to just give that one more week of ease for my side strain, I really don’t want to run into complications with that one, and secondly because of my upcoming gig scheduled for the end of the week and wanting to get as much extra time on my saxophone as possible. The positive is that I got through the five runs, and no injuries.

Looking forward to what can occur in the next week!

My goal for this week was to build some consistency into the legs as I continued to work back after the setbacks over the past few weeks. This had mixed results, with the beginning of the week being definitely more frustrating than how I managed to finish up.

Monday saw me decide to only stick to the 5m route that sees me run on the track between the Canning River and the Freeway from Salter Point and across Manning Bridge. I had aimed to keep my pace around the 6 minutes per km as a good starting point to ensure that I didn’t cause any additional soreness in to my abdominals after the strain that had occurred. Overall, I was satisfied with how a pulled up, however I notice an increase in tightness in my left calf. This caused some concern as this is a muscle that I have had some difficulty with over the past ten years and was concerned that I might end up straining it if not careful.

In reflecting on why it was so tight I think it is not to do with running at all, but rather from the way I have found me sitting either when working at my desk or at home on couch. I have been crossing my legs on a specific angle that has been pressing on the specific part of my calf – this will be a habit that I need to break.

The tightness resulted in me taking Tuesday off running. This is an unplanned move as originally I had hoped to increase the distance to 10km for this and my Thursday run. Instead, the remainder of the week I remained at the 5km distance – hopefully next week I will be able to return to some longer distances, possibly looking at a 12km run on the Monday and Friday, 10km on Tuesday and Thursday with a 5km on the Wednesday. If this goes ok, I will look at increasing distances again in the following week. I’m still working towards hopefully completing a 19km run in the next few weeks.

So far, this challenge I have managed to run 205.3km of the 700 that I was hoping to achieve and I have 50 days left to complete it in…I’m still fairly confident that I can get there – it will just take a little bit of additional push due to the injury setbacks!

Week 5 has proven to be one of recovery and slowly building to manage my body after the slight niggle I experienced in Week 4.

I decided that this week I would set myself a goal of running five days, as long as my body was up to it, and only a distance of 5km each day. Intensity wise, I was aiming at completing my runs at a 6 minute pace, this being a minute per km slower than what I had worked down previously. As I said, my aim has been to slowly build again and monitor my body to ensure that I am not going to cause any further damage to the strain as this would take me out of running for even longer which would be incredibly frustrating.

Monday’s run started ok. I did feel a little sore through my right abdominal side but it wasn’t painful just not comfortable. I decided to try to compete the run and am glad I did. While not setting the world on fire, I did manage to complete the 5.32km course in 32:09 with an average of 6’02” per km.

The remainder of the week saw ongoing improvement in the times but also how the body was feeling. I have found that the first km I am quite stiff sore am taking a little longer to warmup and get up to speed, I also did not really push myself, keeping to an average pace of around the 5’30” per km. The time throughout the week were as follows:

I am not going to attempt any runs over the weekend, instead taking the time off to give a few days recovery for the body before increasing some distances next week. My aim will be to complete 2 x12km runs on Monday and Friday with only 5km runs on the other days. If this goes well, I will look at increasing the distance again in the following weeks.

I started this week feeling really excited and looking forward to being able to ramp up the distance due to my research paper now being completed and all submitted for review. I tell you, this has been a massive burden off my shoulders and I am feeling so good about that point!

Monday started with a really good 12km run, the run felt good and I was making really good time – I knew it was going to be a PB time. With 3km to go I had a feeling it would be possible to come close to breaking the 1 hour mark for 12km. This is something that I have wanted to do, but thought it would be a while before I’d get there. I tried to keep the pace up, but fell short by 24 seconds of achieving the goal. To say that I was extremely disappointed is an understatement, to come so close but then not achieve it is always hard. I reviewing my splits, it seems that the first three km is where I need to give attention to improve my overall time.

I didn’t think it was possible, but Tuesday’s run proved to be fruitful straight away. The run felt good from the first km and I found myself in another strong position. By the 6km mark I realised that again I could potentially in a position to break the 1 hour mark and tried to maintain my pace to keep on track. By 10km I managed to set a new PB for that distance, coming in at just over 49 minutes. Keeping the pace I managed to achieve the goal coming in at just over 59 minutes for the 12km distance.

The rest of the week proved frustrating though. As a result of the first two days I have managed to cause a strain in my abdominal muscles, when a move faster than walk or rotate slightly I am experiencing discomfort in my right side just above my hip. It has meant that for the first time in the 90 day challenge I haven’t been able to run every week day (missing running on Wednesday – Friday). Frustratingly, it also puts on hold my aim at incorporating at least one 19km run a week.

The weekend has seen me feel a lot better, meaning I am hoping to be able to get back on in the running at the beginning of next week. I think that I will reduce the distance and intensity for the next week and, if it all goes to plan, gradually increase the distance again to get back up to my 12km distances.

This week saw me have to change the pace and length of time out on the road. I still managed to get in a run on every weekday but reduced the length to only being 5km runs. This is due to the research paper I have been working on being due in and I just needed the extra time.

Next week will see me return to my more consistent longer routine – bring on the 12km efforts!

I have had to make the decision to change the way I am going to provide reflections on my running. As the school term has started and trying to find that right balance it has proven difficult to find the time everyday to write up on the run progress so instead I am going to provide a reflection at the end of each week. I believe that this will be a much more manageable system throughout the challenge.

Week 2 of the challenge has proven to be a good week, there’s been good progress throughout, I did not manage a run each day the weekends still proving to be the hurdle I have not overcome. My runs saw me take on the track around school with the school week starting. The following was managed:

Hopefully I can continue to build throughout the next week.