Funbi Adebekun

Shocks Spanish Foghorns and The Tan in The Sun

Unfortunately I had to miss Wednesday's training and pub night because I had some uni work that needed to be done and I was pretty gutted, however after hearing how it was from Daria I'm kind of secretly glad I missed it:P Firstly I forgot it was time trial evening (fantastical to miss when you're feeling lazy) and secondly it was torrential raining! So even though I was at home doing work all lonely at least I was dry and not out of breath;) hahaha but I'm proud of my team who manned up like soldiers running in the rain and all achieved PB's (personal bests) after their time trials<3 Today we had a very gentle 6km run at the Tan which is a track near the Shrine of Rememberance in Melbs, team Darbi were feeling the tiredness today after getting up at like 6 oclock to arrive in time, Daria was blasting this Spanish music really loudly in her car in order to stay awake haahhaha and I could hear it from inside my house when she arrived to pick me up; thin walls or loud music lol?! When we got to the actual venue Rupert scared the crap out of Daria by banging on the roof of her car; I think she thought we were being attacked hahahaha, I on the other hand was way too tired to be scared LOL. But anyway the run was really nice, we got to see all the other Cantooers again which was so cool, they're all so encouraging and lively it's wonderful. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the 6km wasn't bad, still tiring but definitely not as bad as 12 haaha. And whilst we were running there was a woman riding a bike with a foghorn shouting comments and advice at some rowers on the river next to us which was hilarious lol. It's crazy to think that the run is exactly a week today:O My number arrived in the post so I'm starting to get excitedly nervous about it! It's gonna be a great day and I'm gonna seriously carb and water load this week in preparation for it so that I can run the whole way like a boss, with no issues-It's gonna be SICK. Anyways I shall leave you now with one of my favourite photos of us hehe; Rupert looking super suave with his new haircut<3

48 Year Old Competition; Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Today was our last long run at Jells park before the event in about 2 weeks, how cray cray! We were meant to do a 70minute run and as usual good old team Rark (Rupert and Mark) sped off at the beginning with a speedy pace, whereas Team Darbi (Me and Daria) took it a bit slower not too slow though we could always see a glimpse of Rark up ahead. Usually what happens is when we get to the point where we make the run back team Darbi get overtaken by team Rark but this time something changed! For some reason team Darbi were incredibly determined to beat team Rark back to the start point....AND WE DID (cheers and screams from the crowd)! FINALLY FOR ONCE, WE BEAT TEAM RARK BACK TO THE START POINT:D So proud and happy haha, especially since today I stretched my legs a lot before I the run and it actually helped because my knees weren't in pain like they had been previously. We ran about 10.7km in 70 minutes and were definitely faster on the way back:) We rewarded ourselves at Madeline's for the last time:O I got a cranberry and passionfruit friande which was just beautiful even though it was small lol and Daria was showing us this app that you upload a photo to and it guesses your age, apparently I look 48 years old!...LIES FOUL TECHNOLOGY!!!! It was funny anyway haha, tomorrow is our wonderful Sausage Sizzle fundraiser at Ashwood so we'll be there bright and early, see you there! I'll leave with a nice photo of our last Madeline's party:'(

Kidnapping, Belly Full of Cheese and 100m Efforts

Training today was good, really nice to see one of the main people in charge-Allison after not seeing her for a while since the beginning:) This time I arrived before Rupert and was scared that one of his crazy fans had kidnapped him or something lol, but it turned out there was just a lot of traffic so he turned up late PHEW;) This week we did 2 sets of 4 one hundred metre efforts, which is basically when you briskly run for 100m then jog back, you do that 4 times speeding up on each turn, then you walk back for 100m and repeat. I had had 4 slices of cheese on toast before I went to training and had obviously eaten them way too fast cus my stomach was feeling pretty grim when we were running hahaha. But anyway it was a nice, light hearted training as always with lots of laughs and I'm really gonna miss these guys being a part of my week when this is all over:( It's only a few weeks till the run now and this weekend will be insanely busy-Saturday=early morning long run, Sunday=Sausage sizzle fundraiser most of the afternoon at the Ashwood's Woolworths, Monday evening=Avengers!  Gosh exciting stuff:D Please come along if you're reading this and haven't got plans it's a lovely way to spend the day, plus a great cause! I shall leave you with one of my fave photos of me and the gang so far<3 

Barefoot Practice Run Pancake

Today was the practice run and I was already dreading it since I had to get up even earlier than I usually do on the saturdays and miss church, but to top it all of Melbourne opened the heavens and chucked it down with rain nearly the whole 10km! Hahaha so typical! But I actually had a really good time, I'm proud that I actually ran because if I was back home, in England and it was raining I would just not go for a run, but I am proud to say I did my first ever run in the rain! It was lovely to see all the other CanToo people and the positive attitudes they had to the event, always cheering on people they saw in the vests and saying go cantoo. I absolutely love their spirit. There were also some people in tiny tiny vests and shorts, even one girl was in a crop top and short shorts, which I just thought was insane considering it was pouring with rain, but each to their own I guess lol. Lastly there was a really tall guy who was running the whole way barefoot for some reason, honestly the strangest thing I've seen in my life. A nice reward at the end were the free pancakes they gave out which was a really nice end to a wet run. So proud of my team for running so well as always; today we ran 10km in 1hour and 12 mins:D Not too far off from the real thing now! I'll end with a photo of us looking all grungy after the run and our free pancakes. 

Batman and 30 Second Intervals

Today it was dark and we had quite a small team, just Rupert, me=,Leanne and Daria but it was still a lovely training as always:) Thankfully my knees were feeling a lot better this session, but I dunno how they'll do at the longer practice run on Sunday, so we'll just have to see I guess. This session we did 6, 30 second intervals which is when you run briskly for 30 seconds then you jog back for another 30 seconds, aiming to increase the distance you run on each interval. This was a pretty chilled task but I was surprised at how much I sweat from it haha. Whilst we were running there were bats flying around all over the place which made us assume Batman was nearby. I'll leave you with this selfie, me looking wuite dark, mostly due to the lack of light hahah. 

I Smell Like Potatoes, Took a Detour and My Knees Hurt

Today was another long run and it looked like a lovely English morning outside-GREY haha. We had a full team again which is always nice and we set off to run. Team Darbi-Me and Daria planned to keep up with Team Rark's (Rupert and Mark's) pace as we usually do but this week I dunno what it is but like the back of my knees were in so much pain I actually found it pretty tough to run:(Maybe it was after the 12km last week; my legs just weren't used to it and the lack of stretching compared to before or something? That could have taken it's toll. But anyway I was going at a much slower pace as a result, still running but not like Super Rupert cus it really hurt. Daria was so sweet and stuck by me running at my pace all the way through. Because of the rain in the morning, the tunnel which we usually run through was flooded and as a result we had to take a little detour to get to the path we usually take which was quite funny, but we found our way pretty swiftly. We actually weren't too far behind Rark the whole way which I was very happy with considering my painful knees and we all ended up finishing together as always. Had to rush off today because everyone had different things to do so I couldn't do my usual team cafe photo. But team Darbi did a selfie in the car instead, where I found out that sometimes when I sweat I smell like potatoes and strongly of it, how very very odd LOL. To sum up, today we ran I think about 10.5km in around 80mins and that apparently made me smell like potatoes. My knees do hurt though so I'm gonna have to be really careful and take it easy over the next couple of days to make sure I'm not permanently injured or anything. Gonna have a long hot shower and try to stretch a lot more and see what happens. To conclude I'll leave you with this lovely team Darbi selfie, it's really hard to get the CanToo on our vests in the photo when you're in a car haha can you tell?<3

Only Got 4 Minutes To Train Today;Training In The Dark

Forgot to update this on Wednesday so I'm speedily updating it before my long run this morning! Last session was an uber quick one we just did this thing that I can't explain very well LOL but here goes. We ran at a brisk pace for 20 seconds then we got a 10 second rest before we ran again for another 20 seconds at a quicker pace than before. We did this 8 times which ended up only being a 4 minute session hahah! I was kind of glad because I was starving, though I probably ended up the most sweaty from those 4 minutes than I have on any of the other sessions which is slightly odd lol. It was so dark, we could barely see each other's faces (luckily our team uni is fluorescent) but we still managed to get a nice selfie at the end haha which is what I shall leave you with:). CanToo killing it to cure cancer!

Lord of the Flies' Return Cue Wasps + 12km +100km=A Dramatic Session

This morning was A LOT warmer than I expected, I came kitted out with gloves and a hoodie just incase it was as brisk as last week's long run session then I got outside and it was a beautiful sunny day haha! So typical of Melbourne to do this to me lol, then to make it even better I arrived feeling pretty good after getting an earlyish night and a solid amount of sleep thinking that we were gonna do 75 minutes and 11km only to find out we're doing 80 minutes and trying to run 12km; I could have cried when Rupert announced it. But I got started and on the way today there were people all over the path who were just finishing an 100km walk which took them 48 hours to complete, like damn, what a bunch of heroes! I thought if these guys can walk 100km I can run a measley 12, and that's what I kept telling myself throughout the run even though it kept getting hotter and my legs felt worse and worse along the way lol. I'm so blessed to have awesome teammates, especially Daria because everytime I wanted to stop running she'd say something encouraging to me and say you can do it without her even knowing what was in my head, she's completely awesome. Rark (Rupert and Mark) the troublesome twosome always set an incredibly quick pace at the beginning and that makes it tough but it always means that we're doing better every week. We made it to the end, running the whole way and went out to eat to celebrate after Rupert filled us up with sweets haha. We went to a different cafe because we knew the usual one would be rammed with people from the 100km walk so we trekked it out to find another cafe that was open for breakfast. It was a full house in terms of our team which meant a lovely 7 of us- Carms, Daria, Me, Rupert, Margaret, Leanne and Mark, and we must have looked a sight for sore eyes in our bright fluorescent vests so early in the morning LOL. Most places weren't open till 12 and then we did a dangerously bogan cross over the road, plus a hike through the bush to find another place! (This is what the photo that I end with today is of (thanks Leanne)) Eventually we made it to the lovely place where we had breakkie and there were massive wasps trying to steal our meals! Obviously because the Lord of the Flies (Mark) was there we should have known exactly what to expect but it was a nice place anyway, cheap and it was lovely to be able to split the bill for once! After we left me and Daria went for ice cream at Pidapipos in Carlton to celebrate and now I'm home, knackered and JONESING FOR A SHOWERRRR, LIKE DESPERATELY. As previously mentioned I will now end with a photo of us trekking the bush to find a cafe, thankyou lovely Leanne, you will be in the next photo<3 

The Dark Night and It's Cheerleaders

Because of last Sunday's daylight savings today's training was much colder and darker than the lovely sunset evenings that we've had for our previous sessions and I was foolishy unprepared; only sporting a cardi rather than a hoodie: I should have known better than to trust Melbourne's weather!:( Anywayy today we did 6, 200m efforts where we'd run for 100m, then back the other 100m, this was timed for 2 minutes so if you took 30 seconds to run you'd get 1 minute and 30 seconds to rest, think I'm explaining that correctly hahaha. So we did ours and started off at about 57 seconds then we managed to get it down to about 35 second in the end which is pretty good, at least by the end I was warm ha. We had some little cheerleaders at training today in the form of Mark's lovely wife and children who outrun us everytime and put us to shame loll. And a little dog that run around and jumped on us so much it was like he'd eaten a ridiculous amount of sherbet. Here is a nice, albeit it incredibly blurry photo of us all, trying so hard to catch the light after training:) 

My First Ever 10km Then Pancakes

Today was the long run and my clothes were still stinky since I somehow still didn't have time to wash them since Wednesday ahaha! But today we did it a bit differently, usually we have a short warm up then get running, but because we're doing longer runs we had no warm up and just started at a slow pace. Gosssh it was cold this morning ahahaha, I really do feel like Melbourne winter is on its way lol and my teammate Daria was crazy enough to run in just some shorts and a vest with no hoodie or anything (crazy chick). Started running and the further and further along we went I just kept thinking when is this going to end?! What we do when we run is run to a certain distance or time and then turn around and pick up the pace so that the last lap is quicker. We made it to 5km before the halfway point so we ended up doing 10km in about 67 ish minutes, which is crazy because it felt like i'd been running for about 4 hours ahahah. Now we're officially half way through my training because there are 12 weeks  and this is the 6th one and I've nearly run the distance that I'll be running on the day which is exciting but I know how much I'm going to have to encourage myself to keep running on the day and that will be tough. I treated myself to blueberry pancakes after the session with some apple and guava juice on the side which was really tasty:) Though i've probably just put on any calories I may have burnt on the 10km run it was worth it since I was starving afterwards. Here is a lovely photo of us all about to eat to end the post....I promise we do actually run hahaha, it's just hard to get photos of people running when everyone's running.

Time Trial 2-Stinky Edition VS Alcoholics and Chutzpah

I've been pretty busy so I haven't had a massive amount of time to update this, but am doing it now 2 days after the session on Wednesday!:) After my super sweaty long run last saturday for some reason I didn't think to wash my running gear so I went to training this week absolutely stinking, especially since I hadn't showered in the morning either LOL. I literally could smell myself and then I arrived and found out we were doing a time trial then going to the pub afterwards, I thought to myself great, I'm realllllyyyy gonna stink now and in public hahaha. Noone else seemed to smell the pong that was in my nostrils so I guess it was just my sensitive nose haha but anyway! We did the time trial which incase you don't remember is 5 laps of the field split into 2.5 laps each time and about 2km, you run the first 2.5 laps then you get a time, then you're supposed to increase in speed on the second 2.5 laps. I was feeling quite tired and out of breath cus it was a hot evening maybe 28 degrees so I didn't think I would get a PB (personal best) and beat my previous time but when I got back I found out I was 3 minutes and 4 seconds quicker than last time! :O Amaaazzzziinnggg such an improvement and it was so encouraging to know and have evidence of improvement:D Then afterwards we went to a cafe in Glen Waverley and had dinner there, it was pretty hilarious as soon as we sat down outside this waitress kept coming over to us asking if we'd ordered massive trays of drinks, honestly if we had ordered that amount I'd have been concerned that we were alcoholics lol! Carmel had to run off early but she left most of her food because she didn't enjoy the steak and chips that she got and Mark decided this would be a time to show us all what chutzpah is (which is the jewish word for audacity). When the waiter came to take our plates he told him that Carmel hated her meal, it was horrible and that she left because of it hahaha, such an awkward moment for all but still hilarious! Then when we got to the desk to pay he told the manager the same thing and the manager gave us $5 back, just to shut us up hahaha, not much of a return considering how much Carms paid but still something I guess lol! Tomorrow I'll be doing a 70minute run and I am scared hahah but I'll leave you with this jokes photo of us at the restaurant with bare food:) 

9km and Sweat Galore

Today I thought we would be running for an hour and 5 minutes because we usually increase the amount of time we run every week. However because we ran a lot further than we were supposed to last week (9km instead of 7km, well 8.4km instead of 7km in my case hahah) our celebrity coach decided we'd run for an hour and try to achieve the same distance. I started off fine even though it was so flipping cold I had to keep my hoodie on most of the way round, but probably about half way through I thought to myself I can't do this, I am literally so tired and my legs ache, all I want to do is walk right now, especially since we were going at Coach Rupert's pace and he is just a machine ahahaha. But I said to myself come on you've run all this way, so you can run the rest and it was really tough but I did actually run all the way and increase my speed on the way back. So I'm quite proud of myself, even though I know it'll only get harder from here hahaha. After we'd finished running the amount I'd sweat was ridiculous like I found sweat in places I'd never sweat before LOL. But luckily we had a lovely time at Madeleine's with some MAHUSSSIVE scones and that helped our recovery. I know for sure that  I wouldn't be able to do this without such an amazing group of people always pushing me to run faster and encouraging me to still run, even when I feel like walking the whole way, so i'm really grateful to have CanToo<3 Now I'm gonna go and shower before I stink up my room ahaha. I shall leave  you with this lovely cafe shot of us having a great time at Madeline's as always <3

150m Efforts, Violent Yelling and KFC

It was nice to be back with the majority of the team after my lonely run on Sunday evening:) Anyway yesterday I had another training session and this time we did 8, 150m efforts. 150m efforts are where you run for 100m (which is the straight part of the track) at a brisk pace but not so brisk that you're sprinting, then walk for 50m (the curve of the track) and so on and so forth! Basically we ended up doing 2 runs and 2 breaks per cycle which was actually alright, whereas last week's Wednesday session I found really difficult. Whilst we were doing our efforts all we could hear were these older men playing footie violently yelling throughout their practice "ARGHHHAMMMUNNNAAAA" (this is a guess at what they were saying because all I could hear was incoherent shouting lol!).  And when we were doing our warm up Daria mentioned going to KFC and that was pretty much all we could think about hahaha. It should definitely become an after training tradition. I will leave you with this photo of us taken just after some running, by a little Asian boy who was wearing a bright orange top, thanks kiddo<3 

All By Myself With Achy Breaky Arms

Bet once you read that you started singing the relevant songs in your head lol, I certainly did hhaha....Moving swiftly on! Yesterday morning I left bright and early to go surfing instead of training and even though I was gutted to miss training I've been wanting to surf forever so I thought I'd just surf it up and make up my missed session later. After bombarding my Facebook page with pictures and videos of my surf adventure yesterday evening I discovered that my team had killed it that morning running 9km in an hour and increasing the speed on the way back! Gobsmacked but also incredibly proud I thought to myself, poo I'm gonna have to run 9km in an hour tomorrow evening:'( I woke up and my arms felt probably the most horrible they have ever EVER felt, aching everywhere from lugging a surfboard double my size about hahaha making the thought of attempting to run 9km even more distressing, plus the sun was blazing a lovely 28 degrees and realistically running in that would make me pass out. So I waited it out till later in the evening around 19.30 and I went out for my run. I ran for an hour from my house in Malvern East, to kind of halfway down Kooyong road in Caulfield North increasing my speed on the way back which ended up being 8.4km. So I didn't quite make the 9km that my amazing team did but at least I've caught up on the training I've missed:D I will leave you with this picture of me looking bare tired after my run today. P.s. My arms actually hurt as I type, it's incredible. 

Lord Of The Flies And Wind Sprints

Yesterday I was way too tired to update this blog, so I'm doing it a day after lol! This training session we did 14 wind sprints, firstly a set of 8 then a break and then a set of 6. Wind sprints are when you gently jog for 30 seconds, then increase your pace for 20 seconds and then in the last 10 seconds you sprint. For some reason I found this even more exhausting than the full on sprinting that we did last week ahah, I think maybe because it was more of an endurance thing and there were less breaks but yeah was tough, speedy Funbi was not there this week lol. In terms of Lord of the flies, this is all to do with Mark-one of my lovely team members. Basically for some reason there was a ridiculous amount of flies swarming all over the track that we had to keep running through which was gross. But whilst we were taking our break we realised that they were following Mark above his head! Literally Mark would move to the left and the swarm above his head would follow accordingly then he'd move to the right and the flies would do the same thing it was pretty insane. Mark is the Lord of the Flies hahahahha. I will leave you with this picture of us actually running for once rather than just sitting in a cafe chilling hahaha! Taken by our wonderful Leanne<3 

50 Minutes, Whoops We Overdid it

Woke up today and was dreading the 50 minute long run because literally my thighs were still hurting from the sprinting on Wednesday! But anyway left to go and there was this gorgeous sunrise, the sun looked flipping massive all glowing this amazingly bright orange, so that was beautiful. It was a pretty cold morning though haha and I kept my hoodie most of the way round. We were supposed to run for 50 minutes with a maximum of 5km but we actually ended up running 6.2km in about 53 minutes or something like that!  So we went a lil crazy. Then afterwards we went to Madeline's Cafe for a post-run coffee (though I just had water lol). Nothing majorly eventful happened today sadly, but there were loads of lovely dogs being walked and plenty of bikers to bump into whilst running:P I'll leave you with this nice photo of us at the cafe looking wide-eyed and alive..Much unlike how I feel right now pahahhaa.  

Let It Go-Sprinting, Wincing and Winking

An even more intriguing name for today's blog post haha;) When I arrived at the track today I saw these two 5 year old girls who were playing in the long jump pit, throwing sand over their hair and singing let it go as they did so-it was ridiculously cute till I thought about all the cat pee that would now be in their hair haha. Anyway today we did 10, 100m sprints back and forth in sets of 5. We had 90 seconds, so if your run to the line took you 30 seconds you'd get a 60 second rest and so on. (No idea if that made any sense to any of you reading this but hey ho!) The aim was to increase your pace as you went along and to challenge yourself so I went for it! As a result of my vicious pace we all ended up starting off with about a 21 second run that decreased to 17 seconds in the end. I tried a little bit too hard to make it 16 seconds in the end and ending up wincing, out of breath and knackered lol. Now for the winking part! Basically on our first training session we saw this ultra in shape, tanned young girl who sprinted like a beast and her and this older guy randomly started chatting to each other they seemed to have some kind of chemistry emerging. Then today we saw them again but they were running together! Ohhhh how running blossoms love, now you know the secret ladies and gents, if you're lonely and single join a marathon or start running. I will leave you with this lovely selfie of our beautiful running crew this evening.     

45 Minutes With Beautiful Birds & A Celebrity

I tried to make this title of my blog kind of witty and funny, whilst also making you intrigued about what happened lol, it probably didn't work, oh well. Anyway today we went to Jells Park like we always do on a Saturday with a prompt 8.00am start, but we did a 45 minute run which is a 15 minute increase on last week. We ran a bit under 5km and whilst we were running there were all these beautiful birds chilling on the grass beside us that you'd never see in England so that was very cool. We also ran by a lake and I thought I saw a croc but it was really just an old tyre ahahah! I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it the whole way but my Celebrity coach made it easy to keep going.(We call Rupert-our coach a celeb because he knows flipping everyone, or has previously taught them in school, we'll run by and literally everyone says hi to him) After the run me and my beautiful birds (Daria and Carms-my fellow runners:p) went for a light breakfast in the cafe nearby, where I ended up getting a free apricot and apple muffin:D So my title was kind a pun for the real birds and my ladies, who you can see below in the photo that I'll leave you with<3 (Mumma Carms on the left and Daria on the right behind me)

Time Trial

Today I had my first time trial! Especially interesting because I didn't know what it was until today LOL. We ran 2km which was the equivalent of 5 laps around this lovely field in Glen Waverley and timed how long it took at the half way point and then again at the end. We were supposed to make sure that we ran quicker in the second 2.5 laps than we did in the first which is called....Some cool phrase that I unfortunately can't remember haha and I managed to do that and achieve a PB! (personal best for all you non runners hehe). After that we all went out for dinner at a lil pub that looked just like the house off that tv show The Jetsons where there was a beautiful view of the moon and the dandenong ranges. Now I absolutely stink and really need a shower, but I'm feeling good:) I will leave you with a photo of the view outside the restaurant.

Training has Begun!

I've had 2 training sessions so far and they've gone pretty well. Last Saturday I went on a 30 minute run and my legs are only just recovering hahah, it has been way too long since I've done proper exercise. The people that I have met are just the loveliest, sweet and encouraging people and I love being a part of their team. Tomorrow I will burn off all the calories I put on from Pancake Parlour yesterday evening, can't wait to train!:P I will leave you with a photo of me and the guys after the 1st session.

I'm training with Can Too for the 14km Great Ocean Road run!

So I've decided to run a marathon whilst here in Australia! I've kind of always wanted to do one and I figured why not achieve that goal whilst I'm here in the most livable city;) I know it's not gonna be easy but it's for a great cause (the funds go towards innovation in the prevention, care and control of cancer) and I'm excited to start my training. Please show support for me and the cause through my giving page, as I will definitely need the encouragement during the journey and all runners who join pledge to raise quite a large amount of money. 

Thanks for being my cheerleaders!