It's all starting to get a little bit serious

So two weeks into speed training and well ouch springs to mind! As in turns out I only have the one gear when it comes to running and if I were to make a comparison think of Sunday afternoon driving.

I had become rather comfortable running the 20 kilometres to and from work a few times a week and my times for this distance have been gradually decreasing, a positive sign. However I suspect the folk putting my running program together suspected I was getting off a little easy and have certainly upped the ante and its getting all a little bit serious. However this is exactly the push (or kick) I needed.

So the speed or “quality” running as those in the know apparently call it, (in addition to my current running program) involves 800m sprints following a gruelling Zamia track run on a Friday and five kilometres at a pace of 4 minutes per kilometres which following Sunday’s efforts I can’t say I have actually achieved just yet, but it has certainly given me something to work towards.

Sunday rolls around and it’s time to attempt five kilometres in 20 minutes. So I made it through my Sunday morning ‘easy’ run unscarred and prepared for my second run for the day, the one that although it is over quickly I suspected was going to hurt the most. So I broke out the instructions to my running watch to work out how the set and operate the pace alerts and off to the river I went to get this 20 minute, 5 kilometres under the belt. All was going swell until I hit the half way mark, then quite frankly panic set in when I realised I don’t actually think I can keep this pace up. And then the beeping of the watch kicks in to politely inform you that you have dropped below a four minute kilometre pace. And as I then also discovered that if you don’t pick up the pace it beeps again, and again and again!

So all in all my run ended with me yelling at my watch – "I know I’m not running fast enough, and I don’t need you to keep reminding me" I am sure to the amusement of any onlookers.

So it is back to the drawing board on the speed front, and it’s something I will certainly have to work at however I am assured it will get easier.

Behind the scenes of Lorna Jane Modern Muse

With a recovery week scheduled in my marathon training program (before entering a month of speed training, not my forte, but more on that next blog) I took the opportunity to put together my Lorna Jane Fit Girl competition video entry.

Check out the final cut at - Holly Ord - Gotta Love the Ride

I hope you enjoy it, we had a ball putting it together (even if it was rather embarrassing) and I hope you can draw some inspiration from it.

And finally thanks to Ellen, Richard and Paula for all your help, you are the source of my inspiration.

Thanks for your continued support and inspiration

Just a quick note to say thanks to the team at Insite Commercial Interiors for your continued support. It inspires me to keep pounding the pavement!

Check out their blog update on my training and fundraising progress at http://insiteblog.com/2011/06/14/holly-hitting-her-strides-for-new-york-marathon/

Running, running and a little more running (Part 5)

So, far, my training is on track and going well. I have had wonderful offers of support from the least expected places.

My training regime currently entails running approximately 60 km a week. This includes the 20 km’s along the Swan River to work a couple of times a week. On Saturday mornings, I usually do some pace work and run the bridges course circling Canning Bridge to the Mount Henry Bridge. And to build fitness I tackle the hills of the Zamia trial near Challenge Stadium once a week. All of which fits in around the circuit training classes at Mind Body and Soul Fitness Studio. The strength training I do at the gym will help to ensure my body holds up to the 42 kms but the greatest help and strength comes from the people at the gym who every now and then remind me that I may actually be able to achieve my crazy goal.

To ensure my body holds up I also try and squeeze in either a Bikram yoga class (That’s 90 minutes in 40 degrees, of me constantly trying to reach my toes, which seem to get further away as the class goes on), or a sedate session at the pool, to build core strength.

After what seem like a never ending summer, the cooler weather has finally arrived so I can begin with some early morning training to acclimatise to the New York weather. The marathon is run in November, and was a chilly 7 degrees last year.

The training program that I am following gradually builds up the km’s I run each week and peaks at an number of kilometres per week that I am even too scared to write just yet. As part of my training I have recently taken part in the 14km HBF Run for a Reason (only a third of the distance I have to cover – a daunting thought!) I am aiming to take part in the Perth half marathon in July and the City to Surf half marathon in August.

Whenever my training gets tough or I just don’t feel like getting out there, I think of Winston or Sheldon Zinn from Brooklyn, who at the age of 87, completed the New York Marathon last year in 8 hours 8 minutes and 41 seconds.

One of my favourite quotes is by the American marathon runner, John Bingham who said “The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”

HBF Run for a Reason - one third the distance, eeeekkkk.

Why not the New York Marathon (Part 4)

As an accountant, I was fascinated with some of the figures which I found when researching how much I could make a difference. $50 funds one hour of cancer cure research. $1,900 funds one week and $7,000 funds one month and $90,000 funds one year of vital cancer research.

This was a win win situation  for me. If I could raise enough funds for this cause, Cure Cancer Australia would be able to offer me a place in the 2011 New York Marathon. My aim is to raise $15,000 for the Cure Cancer Australia Foundation.

So goal checklist is:

    CA – Tick

    Travel – Tick (well first tick anyway)

    Bike riding – Tick, crash

    Running – Tick

    Dad – Tick

    Getting into the New York Marathon – Tick

Now all I had to do was train and raise $15,000.

The first New York Marathon was a humble affair. In 1970, 127 runners paid the $1 entry fee to the New York Road Runners Club to participate in the 42.2 km race that looped several times within central park. Of the 127 starters, only 55 runners crossed the finish line. Not a comforting statistic. In 2010, 40 years after the inaugural race, the New York Marathon saw the biggest ever marathon field the world over, with 45,350 runners competing. And in 2011, I am hoping to be among the crowds of thousand trying to fulfil a dream.

In 1976, six year after the running of the first New York Marathon, its co-founder, Fred Lebow redrew the course to run through all five of New York’s boughs. This is how the course stands today and it is a tough one.

 

Looks long on paper

At the boom of a canon, the runners set off - uphill! Starting on Staten Island the course then travels over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the first of five bridges in the course. Sadly the runners are required to run this rather than take the Staten Island ferry over the water to Brooklyn. The route then travels through Brooklyn, where I hope to get swept up in the excitement of the event and not actually notice I am running.

Making it through Brooklyn, we then venture into Queens which hides the steeper hills of the course and then crosses into Manhattan, where the largest and loudest crowds gather. The course is lined with over 130 bands to take the runner’s mind off of the pain they are feeling. I can imagine by this point some friendly encouragement from the crowds will be greatly appreciated.

We don’t stay long in Manhattan before we head up to the Bronx, crossing another two bridges before returning to Manhattan and heading through Harlem, enjoying the gospel singers at churches along the way. Finally, it is on to the very welcome sight of Central Park and the FINISH LINE.

I can’t actually imagine the feeling and sense of accomplishment I am going to feel as I cross the finish line (in what ever fashion I am able to). All I know is that it is going to be fantastic!

My Dad and Marathon Plans (Part 3)

A  few of the staff at work always participated in the annual City to Surf, 12 km run, understood my loss and saw my pain. They urged me to join them in the race. This was the perfect path for me. I could put two feet in front of one another and keep going straight – surely?

So I turned to running. As I started to run, small distances and slowly at first, I would find that at first hours and then days would go by that I would not be thinking of Winston. This was good for me!

Slowly, I started to get fitter and quicker and began to increase the distances and decrease the times. I decided that I needed some help and joined the Mind, Body and Soul gym on
Canning Highway to be a part of their running program.

After a couple of months, I had gone from being able to do an easy four to five km run to the required 12 km’s for the City to Surf.

In August last year, I completed the City to Surf in a respectable time of 1 hour and now I was hooked. You must be starting to get the picture by now – this crazy woman, who can’t sit still and keeps on pushing for more!

Missed the hour by a whisker

The sense of accomplishment in finishing the City to Surf was wonderful and Winston was now becoming a sad but wonderful memory. I was hungry for the next challenge and this bizarre niggling idea of running a marathon began to creep into my thoughts. The logic was, “if I can go from zero to 12, how hard could another 30 kms be?” Not only that, but if I was going to go all out and go for the big 4 – 2, then why not do it in New York!!

I have always had the belief that there are people out there that chase their dreams and go after and obtain exactly what they want out of life. And if there are those people out there why can’t I be one of them?

Ok, so setting aside the minor issue of the extra 30 km’s, how was I going to get a place in the marathon and get to New York.

Setting aside these minor obstacles, I began to do a bit of research about what was involved in training for a marathon and started to learn about the rigorous physical and nutritional program that I would need to get into.

The nutrition thing was going to be the hardest. You see, I am Culinary Challenged. My oven at home is used for storage and  I can lay claim to in fact exploding a chicken I was trying to roast.

Little did I know, this was going to be a minor issue in the bigger scheme of things. It was at about this time, that my father was diagnosed with cancer and was required to undergo surgery followed by a treatment plan and continual monitoring and check ups.

All marathon plans were but on the back burner as my role now was to care for my father and support him through his illness. This did not sit too well with my dad who enquired as to whether I had been diagnosed with cancer and when I replied that I had not, he explained that I then had no excuse not to continue with my training.

My father had also been a keen runner and realising that while his health did not allow him to continue to run, mine did and I had no excuses. So I got back to pounding the pavement.

My dad was one of the really lucky ones and a treatment plan was available for the cancer he was diagnosed with and he is now well. However during the time of his surgery and follow up treatment I began to appreciate the doctors and nurses who spend their lives making our loved ones well.

Now, everything fell into place. I wanted to do something not just for me but that made a difference, a real difference in the world.

I made contact with The Cure Cancer Australia Foundation, who fund young and innovative Australian researchers seeking a cure for cancer. The more cancer cure research undertaken, the more people can be on the winning side of the battle against cancer.

Stayed tuned ... ... ...

Dad and I at Christmas, hence the pudding hats

Meet Winston (Part 2)

Once home I soon discovered that with the study involved in doing the CA program behind me, I suddenly had a lot of free time on my hands and following my travels, a few extra kilos on the waist line. This was the point at which I decided to take up cycling. The only obstacle was that I didn’t own a bike.

Having never cycled regularly, I was not sure whether I would stick to my goal of being able to cycle to and from work a few days a week, and so did not want to invest in a bike.

But like all good tales in life, things always work out. The timing was perfect. As it turned out, that week there was a council pick-up in my neighbourhood. You can imagine my excitement when I came across this 1960’s Indie 500 old bike on the verge, curly handle bars and all. He was a bit battered and worn but still had a soul and Winston, that’s what I named him, and I, bonded immediately.

I rode Winston home, wobbling and squeaking but, with a bit of a cleanup and some new tyres, he looked grand and full of his old world charm and character. A real gentleman.

The idea was that I would ride to work on Winston for a few months and see if I liked it. If I did and was happy to keep going, I would reward myself by purchasing a brand new modern bike.

Needless to say, Winston and I made a perfect team. Before long, we were in love and were enjoying being out on the open road, with only the power of my pedalling to get us from A to B.

But it was all too good to continue. It was like in a movie when you just know that something bad is going to happen and a tragedy is going to shatter the perfect picture.

The love affair was shorted lived. We had been doing the “to and from” work thing for about 3 months, when I was cycling home one day, processing the events of the day. Everything seemed to suddenly go quiet and if this was a scene from a movie, the slow motion sequence and tragic music would begin now.

My ride came to an abrupt end when I was unceremoniously cleaned up by a car whilst navigating a round about near my home. Winston had been fatally injured and my pain at seeing his broken frame was immense.

An ambulance ride and a short stay in hospital later I was back home minus Winston and not too keen to get back on the road just yet.

Everyone told me to get back and into the saddle but I could not face the prospect of riding with someone else (not Winston).  But, I did need to get moving again.

But for now lets take a moment to remember my poor Winston xx

Stay tuned ... ... ...

Yes it is tiny - but it hurt the most.

So let me share my story (Part 1)

If this were the end right now, it would be November 6^th 2011 and I would be crossing the finishing line of the New York Marathon on a magnificent autumn morning, having just fulfilled a dream of a lifetime!

But, for now, let me start and the beginning.

After high school, I went to university and completed a Bachelor of Accounting degree and started working as a young graduate accountant for HLB Mann Judd. In addition to working full time, I began my studies towards becoming a Chartered Accountant, which takes an additional 2 years.

As I’m sure you can imagine this was a huge challenge. I was working full time and using all of my spare time to study. So there wasn’t a lot of time left over to do anything else. I was very boring – a typical accountant.

When you do nothing but work and study, you tend not to spend any money and so by the time I had completed the Chartered Accounting program, I had saved enough money to do a little travelling, and embarked upon a four month expedition which took me through the United States, including New York, then on to Mexico, Cuba, England, France and Scotland.

The trip was fantastic and the experiences unparalled. In Cuba, I hired a Peugeot 307 hatchback which doubled as my hotel room. I travelled around, across and through Cuba leaving no stone unturned and the car’s odometer spinning.  I got to Scotland and couldn’t work out why I could not understand a word in this place where English is the spoken language. After some stiff upper lip and pies in England, I moved on to France to soak up some culture and extensively sampled ALL the delicious pastries Paris had to offer.

The trip was amazing, but after four months away, I looked forward to returning home to a clean bed, clothes that would fit me and work-life balance now that my studies were over. Anyone who has travelled overseas and had a good time, would understand that I returned to Perth penniless, with just a job to go back to and some major savings to get underway.

Stay tuned………

My transportation/accommodation in Cuba

Hanging out in Cuba with Alaina

I have no words.......

Ancient ruins in Mexico

First time skiing in Canada - please to report no broken bones

The love affair with New York begins

A wee glacier

A wee clock

A wee Coliseum

A wee lion

Welcome Aboard

Hello all and welcome to my blog.

In November I will be traveling to the big apple to run the New York Marathon to raise money for the Cure Cancer Australian Foundation. I have never run a marathon so this will be a huge challenge for me but my excitement is greater.

So hold on to your hats and follow my ride as I go from zero kms to 42 kms.