(sorry Dejan, I accidentally posted from your account aboveā¦ :o)
Hi John =)
Yes, I was told the same thing about the 200. Bad choices, but oh well !!
The girl in lane 4 won my heat, and later that day the final also. Her preliminary was 55.49, and the slowest time in that heat was 60 or 61. The final was won in 54.32.
Something is missingā¦
riiiightā¦
(double post)
I sent an email to Angela Coon the other day, describing a dream of mine from the night before; visiting Charlieās back yard, where he had built an enormous roller coaster. I hopped inside, and went on a solitary ride among rocky mountains, with random pubs serving as attraction sites, on the base of cliffs. There was water splashing on my face, and the characteristic feeling of suspense, going slowlyyyy very slowlyyyyy up the track, in anticipation of big drops that never came.
I donāt know what this dream meant, or why I saw Charlie in it on the night before his birthday this year, but today, this dream flashed up in my mind, after recalling the roller-coasterous bike adventure of yesterday, aiming at escorting my boyfriend on the 28th classical marathon of Athens, in remembrance of the 2500 year anniversary of the race. Having in mind that the total ride would not exceed 60km (30km to reach him to his 10km mark, and then 30km back escorting him), my sister and I began biking towards āMarathonaā (the start of the race, 42km away from the Kallimarmaro finish line), at 7am, on borrowed bikes and in isothermic clothing. Having done the same thing the year before, I knew that the task, although tiring, with its many up-hills, would not be impossible. But little did we know that after finding Dejan and starting to come back with him, on the 15th km, one policeman would block the street on the opposite (empty) side on which we were biking, forcing us to wait there (in the middle of nowhere), until the road re-open again at 3pm, after the end of the marathon (it was hardly 9.30 them). We decided to take the side roadsā¦ through the mountains. Followed by an amateur biker who lived near by and who volunteer to guide us, what followed was a half hour bike ride among grapevines, grasslands and olive groves, with quadriceps burning (we were already on our third hour of total biking time, me, the sprinter, and my sister, the ex-tennis player and current jogger) and me debating whether we should consume the two carb jells that I was supposed to hand to Dejan, one on the 28th and the other on the 35th km, already doubting that I would be able to complete my mission. With legs feeling like stone, we finally got to the ābannedā marathon road again, but half an hour later, and only having covered 3 kmā¦ the runners we met were all going for 4hr-marathons, and Dejan, trying to break 3hr, was going to be wayyy ahead. The road ahead was again an endless uphill, and I was seriously starting to wonder that my sister and I needed no more proof that we could have run this marathon if we had chosen toā¦
But I had to hand Dejanās carb-jell on km28, which was after the most difficult hill, and I didnāt want to destroy his effort, so I started destroying my quads instead, in an effort that looked hopeless. It turned to impossible, when another policeman stopped us and 10 more bikers, blocking the road again. Then the big journey began, biking around Attiki, to reach Athens, in a journey that took us to villages and districts that I knew were far far away, since I had been to some in the past by car.
To make a long and painful story short, and not analyzing the scene with the bike seat that broke and had to be repaired on the way, we arrived to our destination with an unestimated extra 30km in our legs (for a net total of 90kmā¦ Dejan finished in 3 hours and 5 minutes (luckily he didnāt collapse =)), and we finished in 7hrs-15min of biking =P.
Surpizingly, only my hamstrings are sore today, but I know thatās from the EMS I did 3days ago. =) Tomorrow might be different.
I thought to keep a journal again. Life going like a roller-coaster, and after yesterdayās roller-coaster mountain ride and the other nightās Charlie-dream, I thought maybe itās wise to look back to where this track-journey started from, which is this site. Also, now being transferred to a new club that spent some money to get me, I need some extra motivation and structured discipline to make things happen correctly. Life is not easy moving among three cities, doing a doctorate, traveling to conferences around Europe, keeping in touch with family, having a relationship, and training, but nobody said itās not wonderful, and worth noting down.
So, talk to you soon again =)
Welcome back! 
good to see you here
Thanks to both 
Yesterday I was obviously recovering from the bike ride, and I also need to take it easily and gradually training-wise, since I pulled my calf twice last week in training. Now it feels perfect, but of course it needs to be testedā¦ There were no problems whatsoever during the bike marathon :rolleyes:
Technically, I should have finished week 3 of SPP last week, but it didnāt go too well due to the calf issues. This week is supposed to be a deload week, but I will use it to gradually built up to what I should be doing last week, and then proceed with SPP week 4.
And here is my target date: February 19th, Indoor Greek nationals. 400m. There will be meets before that, starting in the end of January.
Tuesday, Nov.2nd, 2010
I still need to take it easy, as calf is not 100% yet
20min warm up, stretching
10x100m with 100m jog rests
4x10 of SLDSās, 3x10 of pull ups and 6x10 of chin ups
Wednesday, Nov.3rd, 2010
30min easy run (calf feels fine during these)
Weights:
3x 12xSLDLās
3x 6xhang cleans and then bring bar up (i donāt remember the name of this > snatches? )
3x 10xpull ups
3x 10tricep pull downs
Thusday, Nov.4th >> Flying to Milan, so no training.
I should bring the game up nowā¦ readers probably thing this is what my training usually looks like, but this is due to the calf issue, and my GPP and first two weeks of SPP were looking good.
Now in Milan, with colder weather and endless rain-days, weāll see what happensā¦ Oh boy =)
aaaaaaaaaa my head hurtssssssssssss. Iā;m in Milan. I thought the headache was from not eating for 7 hours due to traveling (I get hunger headaches very easily), but after eating beans, and rice in grape-leaves and some cookies with green tea, I still have this headache that Dejan says is from the change of barometer, (which never bothered me before), but I am just going to shower and SLEEP now. Tomorrow I have to travel to Bergamo in the afternoon for some presentations (an hour-long train ride from here), so I will be doing EMS tomorrow morning. I want to make sure my calf rests this week completely. Enough tweaking and pulling .
I miss Dejan!!
Calf will need some strengthening.
Stephanie
did you ever try the protein shake I sent via facebook?
if you dont eat for 7 hours it will take a bit of time before your blood sugar returns to normal especially if you continue to train.
take care of yourself girl. Normal untrained people dont do well skipping meals and we all know athetes are not normal. they need extra all things;)
sounds to me like you need to get into the pool for a few weeks straight and settle this calf down rather than going back and forth and trying to push it? Maybe I am wrong but issues with calves mean other things as well that points to an overall body recovery.
tough to strengthen calves before dealing with the issue at hand.
Stephanie
did you ever try the protein shake I sent via facebook?
if you dont eat for 7 hours it will take a bit of time before your blood sugar returns to normal especially if you continue to train.
take care of yourself girl. Normal untrained people dont do well skipping meals and we all know athetes are not normal. they need extra all things;)
sounds to me like you need to get into the pool for a few weeks straight and settle this calf down rather than going back and forth and trying to push it? Maybe I am wrong but issues with calves mean other things as well that points to an overall body recovery.
tough to strengthen calves before dealing with the issue at hand.
I did try that protein shake Ange, and it was sooo delicious ā¦ and I even made it without coconut milk because I couldnāt find any, so imagine if I made the real thingā¦ !
Now in Milan, I have no protein supply yet 
Pool, poolā¦ things are getting complicated switching cities all the time, and having all these training facility changes and needsā¦ I know calf needs to be dealt with before proceeding with training normallyā¦ The good thing about my new location here, is a HUGE grass park, where itās really soft to run on (when I start running, of course.) Dejan challenged me to hold on with running until he arrives here next Thursday (heās staying for a week). But I already have an easy-jogging date on Sundayā¦ :rolleyes:
On another note, I donāt even know how long Iāll be here for. Maybe 2-3 weeks, maybe 6.
My life is so random.
This calf is gonna get better soon. I know this issue from beforeā¦ statistically in reference to myself, itās always related to my psychology. Naturallyā¦
Headacheās gone after the shower. I wish I didnāt have to travel again tomorrow. blahhhh
Thanks for the support, Nick and Ange =) Kisses!!
Who wouldnt love a shake that makes you feel like you are on a carribean cruiseā¦
Who wouldnt love a shake that makes you feel like you are on a carribean cruiseā¦
noted :oā¦ 
Itās a European thingā¦ Kiwiās wouldnāt understand
Whoever reads my journal now gets bonus protein drink recipes 
Thanks Ange! Good to have it saved here.
Today was winding. I EMSāed in the morning (35min explosive strength program on the hamstrings) - I wanted to do more, but I was feeling very strangely in the morning; my head was hurting,and my eyes were blurry, and didnāt feel like doing anything, until Nikoluski told me to go for a walk, and things cleared up But then it was time to go to Bergamo, so I took another walk to the train station (35ā fast walk), took a 45ā train ride to Bergamo, sat down for 5 hours (while socializing - yes I was paying āfullā attentionā¦ , and then took the train back (45ā), and walked another 35ā back home.
Now itās 10.20pm, and all I want to do is shower and sleep.
Thank goodness itās the weekend tomorrow ,so I can start posting some real workouts before people start thinking that Iām kidding everyone on hereā¦ :rolleyes: