Ugh....Insomnia....

Warning..........This post is written by a sleep deprived rambling blonde!!! read on at your own risk....

For years I have had sleep issues......for some time every one thought I suffered from sleep apnia, but after taking the plunge and going to a sleep clinic I now am told by a specialist that...and I quote "Nyle is a highly intelligent women with an over active brain".......ok there's a surprise!!! he can offer me no reasons other than I suffer insomnia there is little can be done. I have good spells where I will sleep all night for about a week, then I will have weeks were I wake three or four times a night.......but then I have the really bad weeks where I will either lay awake for hours or worse, wake at 1am and stay awake until my alarm goes off. Yes I can take sleeping pills but I would rather not......I have tried many relaxing techniques.....Rescue Remedy is one that I am yet to try.

The last 3 days have been one of the really bad weeks. With the stress of the loss of my job, not being able to get interviews to even try to gain a new job, to training daily, study nightly for two huge legal exams in two weeks, Long Distance walking champs in 3 weeks .... plus putting up with a stressed out manager who has only just realised that in three weeks he will have NO staff and there is lots still to be done for many months to come. But I am afraid I am way over caring.

But enough said......My training has taken a big nose dive.......I tried to do 10km on Weds but I never made it home until 7pm from work and only lasted 3km on the treadmill....I started feeling faint and it dawned on me I had not eaten since lunch time. So I gave up.....

Tonight, tired as I was I fully intended to walk the 10 to 15km but Nelson had a huge storm last night and most of the roads are flooded and closed so I only ended up getting 5km in before succumbing to the rain and cold.

So below is my rather sad 5km for the night. Heres hoping I get a good sleep and can attempt my 12km kickdown....its a tough one...but I will sure try it.


5km loop waimea then vanguard by kyisis at Garmin Connect - Details

My first 8km fartlak

Today I was to do my first 8km fartlak; This was to be done in 500m segments.
I am not sure that I completely understood the concept and I feel I may have done something wrong. I think I was too slow in my recovery 500m's and perhaps too fast in my fast segments.

BUT....mental note to self.........DON'T GO AND DO A 10KM RUN ON YOUR X TRAINING DAY!!! I woke this morning with very sore muscles and thought to my self...oh oh....this is going to be a painful 8km.

The weather was against me tonight - not that I am offering excuses...but it does explain why the fast segments going out were not as "fast" as the home stretch ones, as I had a tail wind on the way home. I found that this workout went really fast. By watching for the 500m to chirp on my watch my work out went by extremely fast. I did however bugger up my watch again at the 3km mark as I stopped briefly to put something in my daughters letter box.....another note to self...when stopping .. PRESS the STOP button, not the lap button, I think I had a moment of delirium again and completely forgot what button to press, but I got it sorted and carried on.

Sore legs and all I actually felt really strong tonight and surprised myself with my fasts 500m....will be great when I can carry on that pace for further than 500m. Dont get me wrong, I certainly felt it when pushing but my lungs weren't bursting as bad as a week ago so I do feel fitter and that adds to my confidence alot.

Total time for my 8km was 49:20 avg was 6:10/km

Tomorrow is an easy walk and then Friday is another kickdown of 12km

My Garmin Data with lap splits
8km fartlak at atawhai by kyisis at Garmin Connect - Details

15km Kick down

Well after a lengthy chat with a very knowledgeable australian coach....I woke today feeling ampted to try a new kind of workout.

I was to try my first kick-down. It was our daylights saving night last night so when I went to bed I put all the clocks forward one hour. Meaning I get one less hours sleep, so I woke today feeling tired and very sore from my 10km yesterday. I must admit that I didnt want to go out and do 15km at all and was wondering how I would go with this new walk.

But, I put on my music and headed out the door. I was to take it easy for the first 5km....warm up the body and get in the swing of things. Then after that every 2km pick up the pace for two km then ease back for two km. Well actually it was meant to be 15mins but I found it easier to follow doing it by kms....sorry sir..... now this all went to plan until I stopped at 8.66km to grab a drink from the fountain. I paused my watch.................then started off again and about 600m down the road I realised I had not started it again.

I can now see from the km splits that it did effect how my watch read the data. I added on the extra distance by going past home unitl my watch beeped at 15km....but my watch also would pop up a split time when it would have been the km marker.....................so alll my effort for the last half of this walk if all mixed up. But I know I did stick to the plan and I must admit that I am really pleased I did it.

I am sore and tired but I can see how this workout will defiantly help me. Tomorrow is a x train day so I may just go for a nice 10km jog.

So if you do look at my splits you can see the pace drop for the 6 & 7 kms.......but after that its hard to see as they have become in twined with the half a slow and one fast. But 15km for 1:38 is ok.....


15km Kick down by kyisis at Garmin Connect - Details

Last of the 10km Series

Well it has been a hell of a week.

First up - My coach is admitted to hospital and then diagnosed with phenomena and a cracked rib. (He has cracked a rib in his back from coughing) Poor guy is so misrible and sick.

Second up - Myself and 1 other staff member were given 4 weeks notice on the day that the other two staff were already leaving.

My dream job very quickly turned into a nightmare. Not only has it put a large dent in my aspirations to be a Legal Clerk (I will still complete this course...just take a little longer now) but it has caused so much damage to my sport. My times have dropped dramatically. With not being able to train with the group due to irregular hours my boss demanded from me, from his smoking around me either at work or in a work vehicle and from stress placed on me by his unrealistic demands. I am a very reactive person and if I am in the company of a negative person it rubs off on me and I too become very negative. It has been a struggle to pull myself out of this rut and say...."on wards and up wards, its a new day with new challenges and opportunities!!!"

So today was the last of the 10km series and I have said all along that I would not race in these, that they were for training only. So I went out to do just that. To enjoy this walk and not focus on my time or pace. (easier said than done)

As per normal....I took off like a cut cat when the gun went off but soon ran out of steam at the 2km mark, it even took till the 4km mark for Pete to catch me up. I have been struggling with my breathing and today was no different, so Pete pulled up beside me and said .... hey I'm walking with you and I am shattered, shall we meander.. so we did just that. Turned at the 5km cone in 31.20 but then chatted the whole way back and finished in a relaxing 63.42 giving me a 6min 20 avg per km.

Tomorrow I am to do 15km at 92.5% pace so I am going to enjoy that.

Heres my garmin splits
10km Sprig & Fern 10km series by kyisis at Garmin Connect - Details

A great 20km .....finally!!

Today was one of those....I want to stay in bed days!! I knew that I had to do 20km today and my body just didn't want to. With the NZ Long Distance Champs only 4 weeks away I really needed to know now if I could do 20km and what sort of time I could be aiming to achieve. I have not walked 20km since April this year....in fact I have not walked much further than 10km. So with only 4 weeks to go I needed to know for my own sake of mind that I could at least make the distance.

It was a gorgeous day, actually perfect for training. Its our spring, so it is not too cold and can drizzle at times during the day too. It was 10deg c when I started out at 9.50am and it was sunny, so I wore my shorts :0) My aim was to head out to Richmond and back as I had guessed it would give me 20km BUT when I made it out to richmond it was only 8km so I turned and made a few detours on the way home to make up some of the extra km's needed. At 10km it started to rain a little which was great as I was just starting to get hot...lol.. I made it to 10km in 63 mins so was feeling pretty good pace wise. I was not pushing too hard today...I really just wanted to find a pace I was happy with and get the distance done. I passed through 15km in 1:35 and was thinking...hey its going to be an ok time!! then I realized I had to go back up the hill to home .. hmmm that slowed things up a little. The next 3 km slowed up pace wise as it was uphill and I was getting really tired. My legs were feeling very heavy and my shoulder was starting to ache. I was actually surprised that I didn't hurt anywhere else. My hips felt great, my knees felt great and best of all my calf didnt hurt at all.

As I walked along the track above my house the distance was 18.5km and it was so hard to push past the path down....but I convinced my self that I had to know my 20km time. By now my shoulder was really sore??? I am not sure why this is but it was hurting ALOT.......I knew it was not injury pain...just muscles not used to such work but only on one side was driving me nuts. I was so pleased to hear my watch beep at the 20km marker and even more pleased when I looked down and saw my time of 2:07:28 I chuckled to myself and thought "well I still qualified for the NZ team" hehe

I rang my coach and told him the task had been completed and when I told him my time he was just thrilled as he had me down for 2:15 or longer, I am so glad I can still throw him a curve ball from time to time.

Here is my garmin details for anyone interested.
20km Walk to richmond by kyisis at Garmin Connect - Details

Race wobbles???

I have been bombing out in my workouts and I dont know why? There really seems no rhyme or reason for it. I know that the earth quake in Christchurch rattled me, but that was almost two weeks ago. I just cant break past the 10km mark.

I have 5 weeks left until I fly up for the NZ Long Distance Walk Champs and I am so not ready. In fact I should not even be considering this event but I had pre booked my flights when they were cheaper. I hate entering competitions and not beating my previous times or at least coming in extremely close to them. I was so hoping to beat my 2 hour time but I know that I would be kidding myself to hold on to that goal.

I feel like I am getting slower and slower. I am trying so hard to change my style that I almost feel like I have gone back to the beginning...grrr...and its so frustrating.

My new dream job has turned into a nightmare and I am guessing that this is my main problem and the reason why I cant get my head into my sport at present. We have been given two choices - 4 weeks notice or take a reduced salary with less hours. So I am job hunting as fast as I can. Hopefully if I can find a stable work environment it will settle my head and I will get past this "mood".

On Sunday I had intended to do 15km on the track. I prefer to do long distance on the track as it is easier to get pace judgment and its flat! But unfortunately when I went down there are a pair of nesting Spur Winged Plovers that other ideas. After many close calls from the diving bombing pair I decided it was impossible to racewalk while constantly watching out for 2 birds that would attack from behind and the side. Plus it was also pouring with rain...but that is character building so my coach tells me. I packed up and went out to the Atawhai Walkway, were it cleared up and I set out to do 10km. I was hoping for 61mins instead I ended up with 63.21....its not bad but I felt that I was flogging myself the whole way....not one part of it was easy. So it was a quick trip to my coachs for a motivational pep talk and then home to ponder.

My Garmin data of my 10km Walk
10km Atawahi drive by kyisis at Garmin Connect - Details

PS....as a side note to myself - by Sunday night I had the start of my migraine which at day 2 is still throbbing and has robbed me of a training night, so this may have had a big impact on my training Sunday morning.

Christchurch Earthquake and NZ Road Champs

What a drama to get to this event. I really wanted to enter the NZ Road Champs so that I could get in front of judges and have my style checked. To start with the plan was for me to fly down on Friday night and my coach was to pick me up from the air port and then we would share accommodation, race and then drive home after the race. However....his wee girl had been sick for the last week and his wife was not so keen on him going away, so on Thursday he rang to say he was unable to go. A moment of panic and I was on line booking a flight home, changing my accommodation and finding transport from the airport to the cabin.

Friday comes and I fly down to Christchurch. It had been sleeting and was freezing cold. I was told that as I was coming in after hours the motor camp would leave the key and a map out for me so my hubby made sure I took a wee torch with me so I could find my way around. When I did get to the camping ground the lady had waited for me and while I was checking in she mentioned that 3 other walkers were across from me. So the first thing I did was throw my bag into my wee cabin and then rock over to see who it was. Turns out it was Terry and her husband and another walker, john. So I stayed and chatted to them until 10pm and then headed to bed for a good nights sleep. Or so I thought.

4.35am and I am awoken as I am thrown from my bed. I hit the floor wrapped up in my sleeping bag...everything around me was shaking and rolling. I tried to stand up and get to the door way but it knocked me over again and so I crawled to the toilet door way. The doors were swinging back and forth and slamming against the wall. There was a huge crack and smashing sound (ended up being the toilet cracking) The noise was deafening...the jolting suddenly got faster and harder, so I clung to the door frame. Finally it stopped. It was a 7.1 earth quake. It felt like it went on for a good minute maybe two. I instantly flicked the lights on and they didn't work. Then I remembered my wee torch so I felt around and found it. I grabbed my cell phone but the camping ground is in a dead zone and had zero coverage so I couldn't call anyone. I opened up the slider door and stood semi outside and semi inside. Not really knowing what to do.....I could hear people calling out for help and dogs were barking manically. Car alarms were going off and people were slowly surfacing. About 10 mins passed and then another shake and with that I up and raced out the door and over to the unit with my friends. So we all sat like frightened possums until day break. There were many many after shocks...many were 4.5 and 5.1 on the reciter scale. We had a little radio and we listened to reports coming in off collapsed buildings all through the city and roads ripped up and huge holes appearing. It all seemed surreal to us.

We got dressed and decided to head to the race (not realizing it was canceled) as we left the camp ground we came face to face with the damage. The road had huge ripples in it (some pointed up half a metre) There was no way the event could be run as you couldnt drive to it nor could you walk or run on it.

We talked to many people and learned of their experiences and then at 11am with no water or power we decided to try and find some food and drink. All of Christchurch had no power or water. Water mains had burst all through the city and sewage pipes had also burst so people were asked to not flush toilets etc. We heard on the radio that the air port was still closed and that power had been restored to New Brighton. We drove carefully to New Brighton and found a cafe that was making coffee with what little water they had left. Much needed food and coffee. Just about every house we passed had damage in some shape or form...either flooded, filled with silt or cracks. Most chimneys had fallen in or off houses. The city was shut and locked down so we ended up heading to the air port where we were able to finally enter and sort out our flights.

The event was canceled and yes I am hugely disappointed about that, but I am unhurt and when I look at the photos on line I can hardly believe that I was a part of it and came out ok.
here are my photos - taken from my cell phone 1) this was the walk course

2) this was a small part of damage to the road

3)This is looking over the running course to where the walk would have turned.