A Lot of Testing, 3 More Muscle Biopsies & A Weekend In Sydney to Run a Half Marathon - Monday 19th May 2014

So work has been fairly busy these last two weeks with a fair bit of testing going on! The speed gene and performance study, run by our research group, is well and truly up and running now with quite a few participants coming through, which has meant there has been more testing opportunities and that I am in the physiology lab a lot more. I have also now been given more responsibility within the group and am able to take the high-intesity training (HIT) sessions, which consist of 2 minutes of high-intensity effort followed by a 1 minute recovery. I have also had more involvement within the graded exercise test by taking capillary blood samples via finger pricks, which has been good to get me practicing for my labs next year. I was a little rusty the first few times I took blood but I seem to have improved a bit now. Most of the other students use intravenous cannulation to take blood samples as it allows quicker and more frequent sampling due to the ease of it, so I don't really get a chance to practice taking blood and I've quite enjoyed it. As usual I have also got my hands involved in other projects going on in the lab, helping out by running bloods and looking after participants in post-exercise recovery periods. The other Wednesday (7th May) I was able to head over to Exercise Rehab for the morning to observe in Cardio Club. It was quite good to be back over there after a couple of weeks break (due to being busy with testing) and to see the great work the guys do with the patients suffering/recovering from cardio-respiratory disease.

On Tuesday 6th May, it was my turn to be on the other side of the needle and be a participant again in Jess' study looking at exercise and metabolism. This involved having another 3 muscle biopsies and cycling on a bike for around 50 minutes to burn 400 calories. The muscle biopsies were not too bad and I would say they were better than the last time I had them, but I still won't say it's a pain-free experience!!! As promised last time, for those that want to see what it involves, I took some pictures and a video to show you but I warn you it's not for the faint-hearted! 

To see the video of the biopsy Click Here - Video of Muscle Biopsy

The weekend of the 10th/11th was fairly quiet and chilled out. On Saturday I got up to very little, spending the morning just sorting things out at home before heading up to the State Hockey and Netball Centre to watch Darc play Hockey. After he'd finished we headed straight up to his mum's in Shepparton as the following day was Mother's Day. Again it was a very chilled Sunday, where we did very little, except from drive back to Melbourne in the evening.

Now the weekend just gone (17th-19th) was a little more exciting as me and Darc went to Sydney as the time had finally come for us to run our half marathon!!! We had an early flight on the Saturday which meant by 11 am we had disposed of our bags and had an afternoon to see some of Sydney. We went to Darling Harbour first (as it was right by our hotel) and had some lunch (a nice burger - getting in the carbs) before heading to the marathon expo to pick up our race numbers. There was a fair bit at the expo so we had a little look around before heading down to Circular Quay to catch up over a coffee (or milkshake in my case) with Sarah (a girl from Bath on my course) and Jen (one of her housemates and also a Bath recruit). The weather was really nice and we were in this great outside cafe right on the harbour with a view of the bridge and Opera House and it was good to see Sarah and catch up and find out how placement and Australia was treating her. After an hour or two we arranged to meet up with Sarah and the rest of the Bath group before the race (Sarah was running too and the rest were coming along to support) before me and Darc headed to a supermarket and then back to our hotel to cook up our carby pasta meal, ready for the day ahead. At 8.30 pm Darling Harbour had their weekly firework display so we headed in to watch the short, but good display before going back for an early night.

On the Sunday we were up at 5.30 am (yes early I know) for a 6.45 am race start. We met up with Sarah, Ben and the others briefly before splitting and heading to the start line. The race was a good route but it was bloody hard! There were so many hills and climbs which I was not expecting. I was aiming for a sub 2 hour time and I started well and was ontrack to do it but the last 8kms (5 miles) were a struggle as everything ached and I could feel blisters on my feet. I was so happy to see and be across the finish line! I was a little gutted because I ran an official race time of 2 hours 1 minute and 7 secs, so I didn't reach my goal but I guess I took 2 minutes 30 seconds off my PB. In my head I'm telling myself I ran a sub 2 hour however because I had my GPS watch on which said I ran a total distance of 13.4 miles, when a half marathon is 13.1 miles so if you take that into account (and I checked my time at 13.1 miles) I ran under 2 hours! I have never hurt so much after exercise as I did then. As soon as I finished I seized up and hobbled around waiting for Darc to cross the line. He did awesome for his first attempt at a half, running a 2 hour 9 minutes and 24 seconds which was under his goal of 2 hours and 10 minutes so he was very happy.

After we had met up and then said goodbye to the others (my Bath friends) me and Darc had a hobble over to the merchandise store to buy a finishers top (has to be done really) before hobbling and struggling our way back to the hotel, where we used the pool and jacuzzi to try and ease our legs, and chilled in our room while refueling and moaning about the agonizing pain! I had booked for us to go jet boating around the harbour at 2.30 which was pretty good as it gave us a reason to get up and out again (I'm pretty sure we would have happily stayed in doing nothing). As we were down in Circular Quay early, we went to Opera Bar (underneath the Opera House) and enjoyed our first cider and some wedges. The cider went down very well and it was nice to be sitting in that spot again enjoying the view. After we went jet boating and boy was it fun! We were sat at the back of the boat and I was on the edge and it was great fun being whizzed and spun the whole way round the harbour. We got quite wet too (even though we had ponchos on), because we were at the back so every time the water just came from behind and straight down onto us. Sitting on the edge as well I managed to look like, as Darc described, a drowned rat at one point, copping water from all directions. After we got some adrenaline back into us, which I found seemed to ease the ache in my legs a bit, we headed back to the hotel and got ready and went for dinner in Darling Harbour. We found this really nice restaurant where we enjoyed a yummy garlic prawns starter and nice steak and glass of wine, before we crashed and needed the best form of recovery - sleep!

On Monday we awoke feeling a little more refreshed but still rather achy. After we checked out we went for a walk, to get the legs moving again, to Mrs Macquires Point. It was an absolutely beautiful day with the sun beaming down and it was a really nice walk with some lovely views. We then walked around the sea line to the Opera House and round to the rocks where we had some lunch before heading to Darling Harbour for icecream and back to the hotel to collect our stuff to head to the airport as it was time to leave and head back to Melbourne and work!!!

To see pictures from our weekend in Sydney Click Here - A Weekend in Sydney.

To see pictures from the half marathon Click Here - Sydney Half Marathon.