Since I wrote this post, I’ve set myself some goals for 2012:

1. 10K race (April)
2. 5K race in less than 30 minutes
3. 10K race in less than an hour (in Run Melbourne – July)
4. City to Surf in Sydney in August (14K)
5. Half marathon in October!

In July last year I ran a 5K race in 33:18, and then in October an 8K in 53:07. On Sunday last week I ran 5K in 31:15, which is not quite my goal of under 30 minutes, but I’m pretty happy to have taken 2 minutes off my last time. In a few months I should be able to beat 30 mins.

My next goal is to finish a 10K event, the longest I will have done so far. I’ve chosen to do this at Hanging Rock in April. I like to have a plan of action, so I’m going to follow an 8-week training plan by Ben Wisbey.

This week is Week 1 of the plan. Each week consists of 3 key sessions: a speed session, a ‘cruise intervals’ session, and a long run. So far I’ve completed the first two sessions of Week 1:

1. Cruise intervals: 2 x 4 min with 4 min recovery. According to this calculator, I should be running these at around 6:30 pace. I went running with a friend, and went super fast, at 5:38 for the first interval and 5:28 for the second, according to Runmeter on my phone. The plan specifically says not to go much faster than the stated pace, as there are specific reasons for each of the training sessions at different speeds. Next time, I must go at the proper pace!
2. Speed session: 3 x 600m with 2 min recoveries. I did these on the treadmill yesterday, with a 10 min warm-up and then 10.8km/h (5:33 pace) for the first 2 intervals and 10.6km/h (5:39 pace) for the last one. It was challenging, but do-able.

Next session – on the weekend – is the long run. This week it is to be 45 minutes at a relatively slow pace.

In my defense I have been sick, and barely keeping up with the basics of living (my floor really really needs vacuuming!), let alone having any spare inspiration for writing posts.

So I’m going to try again. Here goes….

Running is something that I’ve tried to do a number of times, but never really succeeded at (maybe like this blog!). I was never good at sport at school, and never thought of myself as a “sporty” person. The first time I started to try running was probably in 2002 – starting on the treadmill at the gym. I think that was when I discovered the Couch to 5K program, which made it seem more possible. I joined the beginners run group at the gym that year, and I remember clearly the first time I ran one whole kilometre. It felt like the hardest physical thing that I had ever done.

After a while I gave it up, though – and I still wasn’t able to run anywhere near 5 kilometres.

A couple of years later I started the Couch to 5K program again, and used to go for runs with my housemate at the time. We lived in Carlton, near Princes Park, and I remember that being a goal of mine – to run all the way round the park without stopping, which is just over 3 kilometres. Again, I think I gave up after a couple of months, and I don’t think I even got to the running-all-the-way-around-the-park stage. But I had definitely improved from where I had been 2 years earlier.

In 2005/2006 I lived in Eltham, and started running around Westerfolds Park. This time, again starting at the beginning of the C25K, I got closer to the end of the program, and was running for 20-25 minutes at a time. Once again, though, it didn’t last.

In 2007/2008 I started up again, this time in Yarraville. It felt hard. I was consistently running for over 20 minutes, but not much over. It was constantly a battle – I don’t remember it once feeling easy. Sometime during 2008 I gave up again.

Earlier this year I needed to get new gym shoes. I nearly bought cross trainers because I thought that I would never try running again. The running shoes were more comfortable, though, so I bought them instead. Lucky I did!

At Easter, I went to Kuala Lumpur with a friend. She was doing C25K and told me that there was a running track near the hotel that we were staying at, and to bring my running shoes. On Wednesday 20 April, in the humid early morning, we ran Week 5, Day 1 of C25K: 5 minutes run, 3 mins walk 5 mins run, 3 mins walk, 5 mins run. I wasn’t expecting to be able to do it, but I did, and it wasn’t as hard as I expected. We didn’t go too fast, and paced ourselves. Next day, my legs were burning!

2 days later we tackled Day 2 of Week 5: 8 mins run, 5 mins walk, 8 mins run. Again, not as bad as I thought it would be. Somewhere along the line, we had a conversation with a man staying in the same hotel, and he gave us some tips about running on the balls of our feet, and not going too fast – these two things have really made a difference, I think.

Later that week, we ran Day 3: 20 minutes of running. Going slow. Running on the balls of our feet. Pacing ourselves. I was starting to enjoy it. I don’t think I had ever enjoyed running before!

When I got back home, I kept going with C25K, completing Week 6 and Week 7 (I remember being very excited when I ran 25 minutes for the first time!). I went on holiday with my boyfriend to Vanuatu, and ran for 20 minutes along a jungle track.

Week 8 and Week 9 – and now I could run for 30 minutes! I joined the run squad at the gym again, and started to train for my first 5K, which I ran on 31 July.

Slowly my distances have increased, and I ran my first 8K on 6 November. This is something I never thought I would do!

The past few weeks I haven’t run, because I’ve been sick, and just on Monday this week I went for a small 3k run around Princes Park. Even six months ago, this would not have felt like a “small” run, which is a very exciting measure of how far I’ve come.

Still, I’m very much a beginner runner, and have yet to run 10k. That’s the next goal!

I just donated to help support the Tumbuka Dance Company in Zimbabwe, who desperately need funding to continue into 2012. Some may say, what’s the point in dance when the country has much bigger problems? Fair point. I don’t have the brain space to formulate all the arguments and think intellectually about this just now, but I do believe that the arts has a part to play in the rebuilding of a culture, in reconcilliation, and in social change. That’s why I donated today.

I’d like to have a voice in the world, and I’d like to not plan that too much, but to see what direction it takes me in.

There are a few issues I’d like to explore: practicing music, the arts world, bike riding in Melbourne…

A few things I’d like to share: renovating & decorating our little unit, travel, photos…

As selfish as this may be, I’d like to find out who I am a bit more. A number of fashion bloggers have written that their blogs have helped them find and refine their personal style. I wonder whether a personal blog of general ramblings can help me find and refine myself? Without banging on about it too much, a lot has changed in my life over the past two-and-a-bit years (mostly very much for the good) and I feel that I need to re-discover the essence of “me” in my career and relationships. I have gone from someone who was very focussed on a career as a freelance performer, footloose and fancy-free, to having a 9-5 job, owning a piece of real estate and being in a (wonderful) long-term relationship. I thought Saturn returns was supposed to happen at 28?!? For me it seems to have happened between the ages of 30 and 33.

This now is my “Jesus” year – the year of being 33. A number of people have said to me that was a very special year; a year of consolidation and confidence. That’s what I want for this year!

So back to this blog. I’m not sure where it’s going, but if I don’t write anything it certainly won’t go anywhere. Time for me is a tricky thing, but I am going to commit to posting three times a week at a minimum. Even if it’s just a short, off-the-cuff thing, I WILL make three a week! Hold me to it, people!

If this is all too self-indulgent for you, you don’t have to read it. I spend most of my waking hours worrying about what people think – this needs to be a place where I can relax that a bit, because it is getting exhausting.

I feel like I am in a recovery week, a brief respite between periods of busy-ness.

Last week was the rehearsal and creation of Minotaur – The Island, with Chamber Made Opera. Working with 7 amazing, creative, inspiring artists.

Minotaur takes inspiration from the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, but is not a literal or narrativic telling of the tale. Rather it is an exploration of themes, archetypes, story elements, images, sounds and feelings. Venus opens by rising from the sea, there is a marketplace, a lost aria, pomegranates, a dying bull, a seagull. People are lost and found. The audience I think will be lost and hopefully will find themselves in the listening.

The score is a series of watercolour paintings. At first it was hard to decipher, but after working for a time, the interpretation starts to come. Dots make sense. Smaller details become noticeable, and playable. Timing starts to synch and lock in. I like this way of working, where there is a dialogue between the composer and the performer.

There are photos, but I need to delete stuff from my computer so I can fit them on! So they will have to wait a little while, sorry.

Caroline Lee wrote about the rehearsal too.

{Image from Chamber Made Opera}

We bought this bike rack off eBay, and it works pretty well, although we only use it for my darling’s bike, to hold it up in the air, while my bike stands on the floor underneath. Also, it holds the bikes a bit too far out from the wall, making it not quite as space-saving as it might seem from the pic.

And then I saw this bike shelf (via Sarah Wilson)! I think I may be in love. How streamlined! How minimal! How USEFUL! I think I’d better start saving my pennies… It costs between US$270 and $US300 with postage anywhere from US$75 to US$150, so it’s definitely not the cheap option. But it would be infinitely more satisfying to use, and to look at everyday.

Here’s another photo to drool over.

{Images from Knife & Saw and auonlineoutlet’s eBay store}