Wild kinetic dreams

Acute compartment syndrome, among other things

2011-02-21T14:04:00.004+11:00

I was cycling along on a bicycle lane 25 ks into my 33km ride to work last October when the semi trailor next to me swerved into the bicycle lane and hit me & my lovely bike. I came down hard enough to have several fractures to my r knee cap, couple of broken ribs, broken scapula, lots of abraisions on both legs, deep cuts around my l ankle and the main artery supplying blood to my lower right leg was not working. Pain was bad in my r thigh. The artery problem played a role in acute compartment syndrome developing in my r leg. Needed emergency surgery to basically save my leg. They had to restore blood supply to the lower leg (via vein graft from my left leg) and releive the pressure in the calf muscle compartments. The pressure was releived by creating a couple of gaping wounds on each side of my calf. These wounds are called fasciotomies. The wounds were left open, only covered by a transparent dressing. You could see the calf muscle moving. After a couple of days, once they were satisfied that my leg was viable, they closed the fasciotomies using skin grafted from my left thigh. Also had surgery on my patella. Several wires were put around and across it to hold it together. The patella seems to have healed so the wires (which are a pest) are coming out soon (that'll be my 5th surgery related to this incident). I don't have enough bend in my knee to ride a bike or jog. I can walk quite well but I can't change directions very well and 2ks is more than enough. Hopefully the removal of the wires will give me more bend. I can swim OK and have been doing that twice a week. Recently bought a cheap kayak which I've taken to the river nearby a few times. Still lots more physio ahead to get the knee flexing more. Bravo to the surgeons and nurses at RMH. My bike is ruined as it was run over by the truck. Luckily I was thrown to the left, away from the truck.

What articular cartilage?

2010-07-07T14:39:00.001+10:00

Ended up having another arthroscopic clean-up in Feb 2010, this time on my left knee. Surgeon’s quote after looking around was ‘it’s not a happy knee’. His long-term advice was:
- don’t ever get fat
- stop running
- ride a bike a lot
- swim

The stop running bit is depressing. I’ve been bicycling about 50km per week all year. Recently got a new road bike & have bumped up the cycling to about 100km per week (cycling to work a bit).

I had about 6 sessions with a physio after the surgery. He had a look at the photos and the surgeon’s report & I think he was pretty amazed at how pain free and functional the knee is. I got sick of doing the physio so a few months ago I abruptly dropped the sessions without communicating with them.

In the last month I have done about 6 run sessions, all within the 1.5 to 3.5km range. These have been laps around a gravel track which is 2.5km from home. I do these sessions at about 9pm (once the kids are sound asleep). What happens is I pick one of my bikes (the old MTB or the new flat bar roadie) put on heaps of warm gear and ride to the gravel track. Start doing laps (according to the Aldi bike computer its 345m circumference). After a couple of laps I ditch some gear. After about 15 min of running I ride home.

Hoping to get to the point where I can run up to 5km 2-3 times per week (always on soft surfaces). These runs are being done on an ‘I’m an experiment of one’, ‘listen to your body’, ‘running is important to me’, ‘my knee feels ok’, ‘hang the surgeon’s advice’ basis.

The other exercise highlight that’s taken place this year has been regular summer swimming in the Werribee river near home. On Jan 11 I tentatively did a little swim. I had no Ill effects and really enjoyed it. I announced to my wife that I will make a point of having a river swim any day the temp is above 30. I quickly became addicted to/obsessed with the pleasure I was deriving from the swims, to the point where I was forced to revise my policy to ‘must swim when ever the temp is 25 or above’. All up I had 23 river swims last summer. They were decent swims too, usually 3-400 m upstream and return. There’s a lovely song by The Church called ‘Tranquility’ which has the line ‘….summer in the river…..’. This was often in my mind as I swam.

I’m sure the people who saw me swimming thought I was strange. I like the concept that people think I’m strange.

Easing back in

2010-01-07T10:49:00.002+11:00

Ks in the last qtr have been:

Oct Run: 146 / Cycle: 30
Nov 148 / 0
Dec 112 / 137

I was on track for >150k of running in December but took a break as my left knee pulled up a sore & a bit puffy from a run on 22 Dec. I've been cycling a little as an alternative which has been quite fun. The knee seems to have settled down but is still a bit sore (like the top of my femur is bruised). A 3k test run last night went better than I was fearing. I'll do a couple more test runs in coming days. If I'm not happy I'll make an appt with the sports physician I've seen before.

Geelong run done

2009-11-23T11:08:00.002+11:00

I finished the Run Geelong 12 k fun run in very wet weather in an official time of 1:00:47. My first k was probably around 6 min as I started towards the back & got a bit held up. Apart from walking for about 30 secs while I drank I ran all the way at a pretty consistent pace. Going by the 8, 9, 10 km markers I thought I was looking pretty good for a sub 60 min finish time. The last km was downhill and I tried to speed up by leaning forward and increasing the stride length.
I remembered to stop the watch as I crossed the line and I saw the 1:00:xx time. I was a little surprised I didn't see a 59:xx. Shortly after, when I was standing around a guy asked me what the time is. I had to switch the watch out of stop watch mode to answer his question. I was wearing my $10 Aldi sportswatch which has no memory so when I switched modes I lost my self-timed race time. I'm not sure, but I think the xx in the 1:00:xx was something beginning with a 1.

I'm not sure if the official time of 1:00:47 is gross or net. Also I read on the event brochure that the distance is actually 12.1 km. The conclusion to all this is I was bloody close to 60:00 for the 12 ks.

The new shoes & the old body performed well on the day. No joint or shin troubles during or after the run. The aformentioned $10 Aldi sportswatch has a little problem. It's still working but water got inside and now there's condensation inside the watchface. The numbers are barely visible. If anyone notices and asks me why there's water in there I'll just tell them it's a watersports watch!

All up it was a nice run. Pretty tough course really. It had just about every hill in Geelong covered. I'd predicted that there'd be delays in collecting race packs but I was wrong. All went smoothly. It's good to be part of the inaugural running of an event. I did the first ever 'run for the kids' too.

I had mobile entertainment with me for most of the journey. A guy near me was constantly doing stuff like cartwheels, hurdles, zig zags and star jumps. He also briefly joined a kids aerobics class and stopped to dance and do pushups in front of the brass band at the 9 k mark. He still beat me across the line!

Check in

2009-11-18T15:24:00.002+11:00

Since 5th August (when one of the worst drivers in Melb put me out of action for about a month) my weekly ks have been:

6/09/2009: 24.9

13/09/2009: 14.3

20/09/2009:22.2

27/09/2009: 31.6

4/10/2009: 36.3

11/10/2009:16.2

18/10/2009: 48.8

25/10/2009:29.1

1/11/2009: 34.7

8/11/2009: 39.6

15/11/2009: 29.9

so far this week: 22.8

My current weight is a steady 87kg. Current resting heart rate is 48.

Since 5th August I have done 5 'long' runs, but these have only been in the 11-13k range.

I haven't done any dedicated speed work. This is because I don't think there is any point in me doing it until I am consistently churning out 55-70 km weeks (a volume I'm yet to ever reach).

I've been too lazy/scared to do the 5k time trial I mentioned earlier so I've no idea what sort of race pace I'm currently capable of.

Unfortunately 80% of my runs have been rather blah since 5th August. Feeling slow and unfit and having unwelcome quitter thoughts entering the 3kz (head). Dunno why. Just ploughing along hoping my 'tude'll pick up soon enough.

I did manage a cruisy 12.7k run on the evening of Friday 13th November which has given me relief and belief. At least now I'm confident I can complete the 12k run Geelong funrun on Sunday.

Given the lack of time trial I probably don't have the right to list target times but:
62 min will be OK
60 will be great
58 will be amazing.

You never know with me, on the day I might be content to start off plodding along at 5:40 pace and only start putting in over the last 2ks. Anything's possible.

The hills at the Geelong botannic gardens are in the back of mind. We had a picnic there a few years ago and I remember it's hilly, just not too sure how bad.

I'll be wearing new shoes on Sunday. Adidas Supernova Sequence. $110 from the adidas store at the new DFO at South Warf. Seems like a good price. That run on Fri 13th made me realise that the old Loco Xpressos with 800k on the clock were just too worn out for a 12k race on hard surface. I've worn the new shoes on 2 runs & they seem OK, except I'm noisy in them (flap, flap flap). Normally I'm very stealth-like. Maybe I should've got the size 12.5s instead of the 13s.

heatwave wtf?

2009-11-11T15:00:00.002+11:00

We're up to day 5 of a predicted 9 day heatwave in Melbourne. Coming outta nowhere as it has, this heat has knocked my running about. The worst of it was yesterday. Tried to do a 10k lunchtime run but ended up doing about 6k including a 1k walk at the end as I was really sapped.

Ks run in Octiober 2009: 146. Spinning this stat, I can say that this is my biggest October ever! This is due to the fact that October has traditionally been a month of running the Melb half marathon early on, followed by a break and/or a month marred by injury.

Things for me to lok forward to:
Run Geelong 12k on 22nd November.
The Church in concert at the Corner Hotel on 5th December.

I've bought some more Church cds in the last few months & keep discovering that they are wonderful to my taste. Their 2003 album 'Forget Yourself' is a masterpiece. The tracks Telepath, Maya, June, Appilatia and Summer are soooo gorgeous and others like Sealine, Song in Space, Lay Low, Nothing Seeking rock in very interesting ways.

Also recently got:
Scott Walker's 'Scott 4'. Very good stuff. Along the lines of 'scott 3' but with a bit less orchestra. Lots of lovely, if slightly warped melodies. It occured to me that Dennis Walter's voice may be quite similar to Scott Walker's. I wonder if he's heard of him? I might email him & suggest he do a SW track at Carols by Candlelight this year. That would spin a few people out!

Nick Drake: Pink Moon. Haven't done it justice with a good listen yet, but the early impressions are not good. Having trouble coming to terms with his very light vocal style and not rapt in the way he plays accoustic guitar either. This is not good 'caus this album is basically all acoustic guitar & light vocals. I'll keep trying.

David Bowie: platinum collection (1967-1987). I'm a casual fan. This is my first DB CD purchase. 3 cds for $15 at JB can't be wrong. It's got all the stuff from the late 60s & 70s that I know & love. And bonus, it's got Under Pressure with Queen. I had a good listen to that the other day for the first time in years. What a killer, left field, surprise hit that is! It's a real mini-epic with it's weird structure and the vocal performaces from freddie (who I can only take in small doses) and DB are absolutely outstanding.

Have enjoyed some from the succinct reviews on rateyourmusic.com. For example, someone's review of Lilly Allen's latestet album was: Hateful, cockney scrubber.

Well, I found it funny.

Fun Run Coming Up

2009-10-27T09:57:00.002+11:00

I've entered the Cotton On Foundation Geelong 12k fun run on 23 Nov. I checked out the course map & it looks great. It takes in the foreshore and the CBD. There'll be some up and down hill work to be done too.

I've been running consistently lately but haven't done anything over 12k since my broken shoulder on Aug 5th so Nov 23 is going be a bit of a challenge.

I'll try to get 2-3 12+k runs under my belt before the race. I had a thought of getting up early & doing 4 laps of The Tan before work. Maybe 2 in one direction & 2 in the other for 'variety'. That would be 15k with (what I regard as) decent hill work.

I'm thinking about doing a 5k time trial sometime soon. Once I get an idea of my current 5k form I can decide whether or not a sub 60min target for the 12k is realistic. Only trouble is, I find 5k time trials scary.

Lucky August

2009-08-24T15:17:00.002+10:00

Got lucky at 07:20am on 5th August, as I wasn't killed! I was side swiped by a driver who 'didn't see me' when he made a left hand turn (past a give way sign) while I was on my commute to work. I have a fractured scapula and rotator cuff (muscle/tendon) damage in my left shoulder and a broken rib on my upper left chest. I had abrasions on my left hand & leg which are pretty much healed.

I think I passed out briefly. I remember seeing the car right as it swiped me but the next thing i recall was angrily kicking my bike off me (it was on top of me) & making my way to the gutter. I was riding on the left side of the left lane on Hyde St Foostcray but my finshing point was the middle of the right lane. This is where I was lucky. Being peak hour, there was every chance that I could have ended up in the path of another car (disturbing thought).

For the first week I couldn't stop muttering under my breath things like 'so negligent', 'where's his duty of care?', 'how could he be so careless?' I was strugglig to accept this could happen in this way (such utter negligence, no other factor involved). I've mostly accepted it now.

I'm probably gonna cancel my entry in the Melb half marathon. My mindset up to the accident was that I was gonna 'nail' the hm (well my definition of nail anyway). As I wont be able to do it in the way that I saw in my mind, i'm not gonna do it at all!

I tried a 5 min jog a few days ago & it was non-sustainable. Touch wood it should pick up a lot over the next 3 weeks. I'll try another jog in a week or two. In the meantime I might head to the You Yangs soon for some psychologically theraputic bushwalking.

One of the various things that piss me off about this is the tacit vindication that the non-exercising naysayers derive from this. 'You're right, it shouldn't happen but it did, proving that cycling is too dangerous to do'.

Good July

2009-08-04T09:07:00.002+10:00

July relevant info:

Run ks: 176 (5th biggest ever)
This includes:
3.5k barefoot (on grass) &
A 19k long run at about 6:00 pace.

Barefoot walking on concrete:
50 mins.

Riding:
66 ks (rode to work & back home on the same day).

Good month. The monthly running ks have continued the gradual rise since Jan.

I've entered the Melb half marathon again. This will be my 3rd in a row.

I took about 36 hours to recover from the 19k run on July 26 and about the same time to recover from the ride to work & back on July 29.

I tried a couple of new things on the 2hr 12min long run that I did early last Sunday (Aug 2nd). I was trying to prevent DOMS. The things I did differently were:
- I stopped at a bubbler at presidents park Werribee a couple of times to drink,
- After 1hr 55min of running I ate my stash of half a handful of sultanas,
- ran on a good mixture of bike path, grass and undulating river bank

I ran on an empty stomach (as usual for a lr). As soon as I got back I got some porridge into me, drank some salvital and took some glucosimine. During the shower I sprayed coooold water on my knees & calves and for the rest of the day I wore my cheap, cheap slazenger brand 'compression' tights. The end result of all the above (plus other variables that I'm not aware of) is that I had no DOMS after this run & didn't even feel all that tired during the day. So, I'll keep doing this type of stuff after long runs & rides.

The ride to work & back went well, though the legs were really quite 'gone' during the last 5ks. I hope to do it again tomorrow and weekly on-going.

I've found that the barefoot running on the grassy baseball field at presidents park, while very pleasant, does not toughen up the skin hence the bit of barefoot walking on concrete. I've no long term plan with the b/f. Short/medium term goal is to toughen up the skin to run about 4k per week b/f on (pretty much) any surface.

I've ordered a pair of Loco Perfectos (shoes). I've had 2 pairs of Loco Xpressos which I reckon are great for me. Unfortunately my size is no longer available in Xpressos so I'm giving the Perfectos a go. All my other shoes are due for recycling so as long as I take to the Perfectos I'll be wearing them on Oct 11 (half marathon day).

Pre & post solstice

2009-07-01T08:29:00.002+10:00

I've always liked the way that daylight time starts to increase only about a quarter of the way into winter. If the weather gets me down at least I can resort to the thought that every single day there is more daylight available.

June stats & info:
Runs: 18
Time on feet (running): 15hr 07 min
K's: 156*
Barefoot K's: 5
Longest run: 85min/14.6k
Weight: 88kg
Waist: haven't checked
Watch: ran the whole month watchless, so times are approx. I have a feeling that the 156km total is pretty accurate as I reckon I can judge my pace pretty well.
Highlights:
- Getting up & about to hit the road by 6:25am last Sunday for a 'long' run, experiencing sun rise on the run & pulling up fine after the run.
- On 29 June realising that I've gone over 150k for the month for the first time since last Sept & thinking 'that was pretty easy' (physically, mentally and logistically).

*10th biggest month ever

2009 K's:
Jan 09: 51.4
Feb 09: 71.7
Mar 09: 94.9
Apr 09: 102.6
May 09: 123.3
Jun 09: 156.8

Haven't registered yet for the Melb half marathon, will get around to it.

Plan for next 8-10 weeks:
Stay healthy, run consistently, eat well, lengthen the long run, have a lighter week or two (injury prevention), do some bike riding, keep self-massaging the R calf after most runs (more injury prevention).

Yeah.

End of May check-in

2009-06-03T14:47:00.000+10:00

2009 ks:
Jan 09 51.4
Feb 09 71.7
Mar 09 94.9
Apr 09 102.6
May 09 123.3
Slow but steady increase.

Average May pace: approx 5:30 min/km

Weight: 89kg
Waist: 94cm
Slow but steady decrease.

May was a good running month for me. My right shin/calf which started playing up in Sept last year seems to have finally settled down. After most runs I self-massage the calf which seems to be doing the trick.

Longest run for the month was 13.5k on the 24th. This included 1k of barefoot running on soft grass.

I now feel entitled to look forward to training through winter and doing the Melb half marathon for the 3rd year in a row. I’ll probably do some small fun runs in the lead-up as well. The Coburg Bluestone Classic is coming up later this month. I did this 2 years ago. It’s a 15k’er with 8k of hilly cross country. This would be a tough challenge for me in my current state. I will avoid.

The plastic watchband on my 4yo Casio Phys sports watch finally fully perished so I’m doing all things, including running, watchless at the moment. I’m now procrastinating over whether I try to get a suitable watchband, buy a new sports watch or just go without, which isn’t bothering me at this stage.

Wishing The Church the best of Luck

2009-05-14T15:21:00.001+10:00

It’s exciting times at Steven Kilbey’s house. He’s been granted a visa to enter the States (this was never a shoo-in given his long-ago gear possession incident), so he and the other 3 who make up The Church can get on with their Nth American tour to support their brilliant new album ‘Untitled #23’. In more good news it’s getting rave reviews everywhere including Rolling Stone & AllMusic.com. Best news of all is it’s up around the top 50 on Amazon’s interest level gauge. I hope it explodes & sells bucket loads everywhere. S. Kilbey so deserves and NEEDs the money. Check out his blog entry for 13 May. The excitement is palpable.

I basically don’t listen to FM radio anymore, so I dunno if the likes of JJJ, RRR & PBS are playing tracks from it. They bloody well should be supporting this magnificent Australia band. I won’t mention the commercial stations as they are just unmentionable….

The last track on the album ‘Operetta’ has such an emotional feel to it. It’s hard to put your finger on. It wont happen the first time you hear it. You need to have about 5 listens to ‘get’ the structure of the song, then if you take the time to LISTEN and let the song envelop you, you’re off on a journey. The music and lyrics somehow work wonderfully together to make you reminisce and yearn for something in your past. It’s deeply sad and optimistic all in one. The moment when SK sings:
piano, drums and trumpet
just like the old days….
and then a brief and simple yet perfect trumpet solo plays. That moment is just sooooo emotional. And it’s not just me saying this. Numerous posters on the Hotel Womb message board have spoken about being overcome at the same part of this track.

It’s a rare thing for music to get me like this. IMHO elite songwrting talent, clear vision of what’s desired and elite performance-execution need to come together for it to happen.

The Church have done this on some of their earlier tracks (bastards!, sob), but this ‘Operetta’ really gets ya good/bad.

My running is going pretty well. We had a one night stay at the Novatel Forest resort at Creswick (between Ballarat & Daylesford) on the Mothers’ Day weekend. I was able to slip out for a 20 min run on the Sat afternoon. There’s a golf course at the resort which I ran through on the way to the forest trails. Ahhhhhhh I just love running on forest trails. Pitty I only had time for a shorty. I highly recommend the Novatel Forest resort for a short getaway close to Melb. We’ll be back, preferably for a 2-3 night stay. There’s a heap more forest trail for me to do!

I did 102.6km in April (first time >100 since Sept 2008).
I did 27.5 k’s in the last week.
Weight is still around 89kg.

50k in a day

2009-05-07T09:46:00.000+10:00

So, last Saturday I did the ‘Go The Extra Mile’ 50km walk. Me & about 130 other entrants started at Jells Part at 07:00am & followed the Dandenong Creek track to the foot of the Dandenongs. I did about 4k of running in the first (flat) half. Because of the running, I arrived at pit stop #2 - Doongalla picnic ground – about 15 min ahead of my team mates. I ate & drank & tended to my feet for a while & because I was under no obligation to stay with the team for the whole 50km, was about to set off for the hilly 3rd leg when they arrived. Because we were together again I decided to wait. It turned into a 60min pit stop which was way too long for me. I was cold by the time we resumed. Now we were moving again I was happy enough to stay with the team now. There was no choice really as the 3rd leg was too hilly to run anyway.

The last 1-2k of the 3rd leg was steep downhill which was a bit painful and mentally irritating. I much prefer uphill. The 3rd pit stop was at the bottom of the ‘1,000 steps’ which lead up to One Tree Hill picnic ground. The 3rd pit stop was also way too long for my liking (about 45 min). Made it up the ‘1000 steps’ pretty easy. We did an accidental extra 800m at the top when we missed a route marker. The final leg was 12k (12.8 for us). We completed the last bit in darkness, finally finishing at about 7:30pm. My legs held up really well. They became a bit achy at about the 20k mark, but their condition didn’t really deteriorate any further from there. It took waaaaay longer than I was expecting because:

a) I didn’t do as much running as I though I might.
b) Deciding to wait with the team during the marathon pit stops
c) Re the Dandenongs, she does not surrender her k’s lightly on her hilly bits.

I’m ever so impressed with my 43 year old legs. Surgery on both knees (including a reconstruction), ropey veins, excess kgs around the waist, a 4kg backpack and some serious up ‘n’ down hills were no trouble for them.

I’ve since done a 8.5 k run and some bike riding. DOMS are fin. Now that (mostly) walking event’s done I can focus on building up my long runs. Yay.

It don't come easy

2009-04-16T10:14:00.002+10:00

Had a family holiday in Adelaide just prior to Easter which was lovely. Stayed in glenelG & did some short runs along the beach. Didn’t do any long runs as it’s a bit rude & self-indulgent to leave the wife & kids waiting while you’re away on hols.

Tue 31/03/2009 Tan 9.4
Thu 02/04/2009 Glenelg Beach 3.2
Fri 03/04/2009 Glenelg Beach 5.0
Sun 05/04/2009 Glenelg Beach 5.0
Tue 07/04/2009 Glenelg Beach 5.0
Thu 09/04/2009 Werribee river 6.5
Fri 10/04/2009 Werribee river 6.2
Sun 12/04/2009 Werribee river 6.1
Mon 13/04/2009 You Yangs 3.5 hours of bush walking with a bit of running
Wed 15/04/2009 Swan St Bridge 6.6

Most of these were at around 5:15 pace.

Ks for March were 96. I should be over the 100 mark in April for the first time since Sept 08.

My calf/shin thing is still there but I seem to have worked out how to minimise it with self massage & ice after a run.

I’m actually not finding it easy to churn out these modest runs. I’m stubbornly running too fast most of the time. My heart rate has been high 150s-160 whereas I should slow down & keep it to mid-high 130s. The problem is, when I know I’ve only got 35-40 mins to run I lose discipline push the pace up. I’m sure this is doing very little, if anything for my endurance. To start reclaiming my endurance I need to do a 60 min slow run & keep building weekly long runs from there. Right. Sounds like a plan.

Another factor that’s getting my heart rate up is the fact that I’m running at 89kg. When I was 78kg I could cruise around at the pace & HR I was happy with. I believe the weight will drop when I resume long runs & get back to minimum 150 k per month.

Exercise highlight was undoubtedly the Easter Monday You Yangs odyssey. The weather was the same as last time at the YY, not a breath of wind, crisp pre-dawn leading to gorgeous sunny morning. I started before first light again and did Branding Yard track, Flinders Peak & the East-West loop. At the top of the peak I stopped to look at the view & listen to the near-silence. It was amazing to be able to see a 100km radius yet hear virtually nothing. Serene solitude........

You Yangs walk

2009-03-31T15:20:00.000+11:00

I got up so early on Saturday morning that I arrived at the You Yangs main entrance gate in the pitch black at 06:30am.

My objective was to walk in the bush & on the undulations for about 2.5 hours in preparation for the ‘go the extra mile’ 50km charity walk/run that I’m doing on Sun 02 May (for more details refer to the coolrunning calendar).

As I set off I looked up at the flashing red beacon at the top of Flinders Peak, the highest point at the You Yangs & decided that getting to it was a must do.

The first couple of ks were on the moderately uphill sealed road leading up to the turntable car park. I had my bicycle headlight with me which I switched on every now & then to see what was about but mostly I just walked in the dark & looked at the stars. The sound of my footsteps on the road caused a bunch of cockys to rustle & squawk in the trees overhead. A few wallabies hopped away too.

When I got to the carpark I turned the bike light on again to read the signs. The light caught the eyes of a good sized kangaroo (at least 5ft tall) not far away. We looked at each other for a while, then I made the ‘skippy’ noise and it hopped away.

There was enough pre-sunrise light to safely make my way up the Flinders Peak track. My jacket & bikelight went into the backpack & some fruit came out. I was happy & slightly excited to be there, alone. It was all panning out better than I had hoped.

The walk to the peak includes 345 steps. I noticed I was much more aware of my heavy breathing and fast thumping heart during this vigorous walk compared to a run. Out of curiosity I stopped to checked my heart rate: ~120. On a typical run it in the mid 130s & I barely notice it.

I spent a couple of minutes at the top of the peak looking around. The sun was yet to appear but the sky was pink in the East. There was barely a breath of wind up there. Ate some more fruit on the way down. I got onto the East-West track and ran for about 1km. This track is basically a loop running around Flinders Peak about 1/3rd of the way up. It is mostly runnable & definitely one to re-visit. I did the full loop & then ran the 2-3ks down the road back to the car. All up 2hr 27 min on feet. A good workout, even though I only did about 3.5 ks of running.

This was my first time exercising at the You Yangs, pretty crazy considering I live only 25 mins from there. I will definitely be back. Next time I’ll do, or partly do, the great circle drive (12 ish ks).

The DOMS in the legs have been pretty bad. I’ve just done a 9k run which hopefully will free things up a bit. The troublesome shin is not too bad.

No buts about it

2009-03-20T11:09:00.002+11:00

In terms of cycling I need to HTFU.

I rode my heavy old mountain bike to work on Wed morning. Set off at 6:30am and the ride took 1 hr36 min. The bike computer said it was 33.5kms. All up it was a good ride. At one point my pump broke lose from the bracket & fell to the ground. Luckily it didn't get caught up in the works so no harm done, just had to turn around to pick it up & put it in the backpack.

I was pretty uncomfortable during the final 6ks. The main issue was a sore bum. I know from experience that reguular riding hardens you up down there. My legs were pretty shot too. 3,600 running ks over the last 2 years hasn't made me a strong cyclist from the get-go (although I'm sure it's way better than starting from the couch).

I left the bike at work over night & rode it home yesterday afternoon. The Southerly change hit just after I reached the federation trail so it was a strong headwind all the way to Werribee station (to pick up my car). 35km ride in 1hr 52min. Tough, tough going. At times my speed was down to 14kps due to the wind (& tired legs). After a good sleep my legs feel quite good today. I'll do some running on the weekend. My shin/calf niggle feels good after all that riding. Maybe it's helping.

The plan is to ride in once or twice per week. Riding home on the same day is too much for me atm. Instead of leaving the bike at work overnight, I'll take it on the train & ride home from the station. Eventually I might get bike-fit enough to ride in & back on the same day. If I keep this up over winter I mught just reward myself with a nice new road bike which should cut down the travel time significantly.

I hope to run in the Wyndham fun run on 29 Mar. Probably do the 8.6k option along the Werribee river (details are on the CR calendar).

Have a good weekend. I'm looking forward to mine (well, duh).

Done me dash!

2009-03-16T14:46:00.004+11:00

On Sun 15 Mar I slipped-in a race that wasn’t flagged in my upcoming events. I did the Eynesbury dash 10km fun run.

Eynesbury is a new housing estate between Werribee & Melton (in the middle of nowhere). It’s being built around an 1870’s bluestone homestead which has been nicely renovated. John Wood is the face of Eynesbury. You may have seen him on billboards or TV ads promoting it.

Getting there from Werribee was pretty easy, just follow all the signs with John Wood’s mug on it.

The description in the CR calendar said there were 5 & 10k options, both taking in the bush trails in the area. This is what attracted me to the run so you can imagine I was quite peeved when the man said that due to Saturday’s rain it would be run on roads ‘to keep our feet clean’. I for one like getting mud on my shoes & legs & so forth. Sounded like a soft, soft option to me, although I will say I don’t know exactly how muddy it was. Maybe it was like ankle deep or something; dunno.

I was tossing up between 5 & 10k. 10k is as far as I’ve run since last Oct. Having an eye for value I decided on 10k for $20 over 5k for $15.

Soon after the Melton Idol winner’s rendition of Advance Aus Fair (complete with slip-up at the end) was done the 5k runners were away. There were about 80 of them, then 10 min later me & the other ~25 10k runners were off. I started mid-pack doing about 5:30 – 5:45 pace & within 200m was second last! I could tell that I’d soon be passing some of these hares. Sure enough in the first k I passed a couple of girls. One was overweight & was breathing really hard indeed. I thought to myself ‘she’s not gonna enjoy herself today’.

As the run progressed I realised that I was enjoying myself. The road was smooth, flat & wet. The weather was nice & cool. A bit too blowy but otherwise perfect. We were surrounded by gum forest. The atmosphere was nice on this 2x5km loop. Up to about the 6k mark I was regularly self-assessing my breathing and legs & keeping things under control. Probably in the upper end of my aerobic zone. By about the 5k mark I’d passed about 4 people and was about to pass another but he decided to go with my pace. We were shoulder to shoulder for about 12 min. It was good fun. We didn’t say a word but were sharing something. I could hear his breathing was pretty hard which didn’t surprise me, afterall, he was tacking on to my pace (not vice versa). We came to a slight incline near a turn around point & I sensed him dropping off. I accentuated this by picking it up a fraction. There was a tail wind upon the turn around which gave me a further boost. I allowed myself to pick up the pace a bit more as there was only about 3.x k to go. I knew I wouldn’t see that bloke on the course again. I passed another bloke and I saw the aforementioned overweight lady going in the other direction. She was battling hard but still running! I was very impressed. I had an urge to encourage her but thought I’d better not interrupt her concentration. I was worried she’d think I was patronising her or something. I should be more spontaneous & not concern myself with these things. Now she doesn’t know how I admired her effort.

With 2k to go there were 2 more blokes in my sights. It became apparent that the one furthest ahead was going to be passed by the other bloke. I decided to try to catch at least one of them. It took a while but I got the burnt-out one at a turn around point just 80m from the finish. The other one managed a fast finish so there was no catching him. My time was 50:02. I was happy with that. During the run I looked at my watch a couple of times & thought 52 would be OK for today, so very 50 is very nice. No doubt it was a pretty big –ve split, but I don’t have the stats.

Later on while milling around the guy I was shoulder to shoulder with said ‘nice run’. That made me feel good, respected even.

My run of the day award goes to that brave overweight lady who went out too fast but kept going. I hope she wasn’t discouraged by the experience & keeps running!

John Wood was there awarding the prizes. He’s a fat git. Actually not as fat as he looks on telly. Maybe what they say about telly is true, or he’s lost a little weight.Still a fat git though.

The shin didn’t seem to be affected by the run (all on roads). This makes me think maybe I should just put up with & just run through this niggle. We’ll see how it goes as I build to 30 k per week.

My weight is down to about 88kg. Yay.

I might do another unflagged fun run. the Wyndham

------------------

Poor Steve Kilbey had to go to hospital last week for a few days. He’s on the mend, has quit all ‘substances’ & is loving it. Still blogging like a demon. Check out his Sun 15 March entry. Beautiful. Love you man.

mixed bag

2009-03-10T13:33:00.003+11:00

Running totals:
Dec 08: 3km
Jan 09: 51km
Feb 09: 71km

I'm finding that if I run for more than about 30 min I need to ice my r shin afterwards to stave off a shin pain flare-up. So, yes unfortunately I still can't run with impunity. This is a bit of a shame because my motivation to run longer distances has generally been quite high of late. I've found that my stamina is much improved on the last few runs thanks to getting back to 20km per week. My lungs & heart & head & most of my legs are saying come on lets go out for a nice gentle 90-100 min run. My friggin' r shin is holding me back.

I've done some 3 hour walks in prep for an event called 'go the extra mile' on Sun 02 May. This is a 50km walk ending in the Dandenongs. It's a fund raiser to benefit the downtrodden Dalit children in India.

Last weekend I rode my bike about 67km. All the way from home to Docklands & back. Man, I was stuffed during the final 5km but I somehow managed to get home. I've worked out the logistics for riding in, getting the train home, getting the train in the next day & riding home. Complex but probably do-able. I just need to put the bike in for some servicing & I'll finally be ready to do some cycle commuting to work (just in time for the cold weather).

Well a lots been happening in my personal life, but that's not what this blog's about. I'm still married, still have 2 kids, a roof, a job & we're all healthy, so it hasn't been any of the biggest ticket items. Lots of other stuff going on, some of which is threatening some of the big ticket items. Most of it is of my own making or in my scope of control, so it's up to me.

The Church did some concerts in Vic on the weekend. I saw em on Sat night at the East Brunswick club. I have been sooo looking forward to this event for 6 weeks. Maybe my expectations were a little high but I came away a bit disappointed in the show. My main beef was the loudness and muddiness of the sound. I haven't been to concerts for years so I'm well out of touch, but this gig was just too loud. You know when the bass drum hits you on the chest like a medicine ball that something's up. The drums & bass and vocals were all too meshed up. Steve Kilbey seemed to be yelling more than singing and sometimes seemed to be not following the melody of the song, just belting it out. A couple of times I looked at him & thought yep it's Steve Kilbey, but the singing's like a Church cover band (Yikes). I've noticed in his blog that he did confess to drinking too much on Sat night. Damn demon drink (I've barely touched alcohol in the past 4 months). The beautiful subtlety of their music didn't come across to me on Sat night. Obviously it's very shallow to be put off by the appearance of people, but The Church's guitarists M W-P and PK are not pleasing to my eye. Yikes, sorry again. I'll just continue to enjoy listening. On a positive note it was good to finally largely work out who does what in their partnership. And I'm afraid TP their drummer just doesn't do it for me at all. He just doesn't seem to have any chops or speed. Reminds me of a caveman using clubs.

Having said all that I was able to purchase a pre-release edition of their new album titled 'untitled #23' and I am very happy with this. In the studio, Steve Kilbey's voice is varied and full of spark. Only up to my 3rd listen, so it's still settling in. About 7 of the 10 songs are dreamy, soaring, melodic beauties, each with enough left turns to stop them being predictable pop. The other tracks rock out quite a bit more and are excellent. Early favourite is 'Anchorage' with about 8 others on its tail.

I also picked up their two new EPs. One called Coffee Hounds has a cover of kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love'. It's a faithful, excellent version. SK's vocals are great. All in all, the Church in 2009 are in fine, fine fettle and deserve to be re-discovered by y'all.

I was also very impressed with the support act on Sat night called 'astreetlightsong'. 3 young lads from Sydney who reminded me at times of Killing Joke and The Killers. ie sort of 80's post punk. God they looked young, good musos. They too were way too loud.

Reality sandwich #2

2009-01-27T11:53:00.001+11:00

Weight: 90kg

I’ve checked it too many times over the fortnight. It was as low as 88 & as high as 91. Of course I really should just check it weekly, or fortnightly to measure the trend and eliminate the ‘noise’ of dodgy data.

Waist: 96cm.

So no movement in the numbers. A little disappointed, but I have trust It’ll turn around in the coming months.

I’m happy enough with my comeback to running following the shin splint/stress reaction I endured for the last quarter of 2008. I’ve been running every second day for about 20 mins. I’ve done 45ks so far in Jan 09.

I’ve also done two long walks. One was 140min & the other 100. There was a bit of running thrown in during those walks as well.

I’ve broken the kitchen pantry closed at 8:30pm rule twice in the fortnight. The other rules have been adhered to pretty well.

Aim for the coming fortnight is to get tough on after dinner snacks. Go to bed a bit earlier and keep everything else going.

Back in the 90s

2009-01-09T11:31:00.001+11:00

No, I haven’t grown my fringe down to my nostrils and resumed wearing flannelette shirts and blundstones everywhere (although still partial to flannels). It’s my weight and waist. That’s what Willis is talkin bout.

Two years ago I joined a Melb Uni School of Physio knee study looking at how a group of people who’ve had part of their medial meniscus removed get along over time, compared to a control group (ie no knee surgery). I’m in the kaos group, not the control group. In Jan 07, when I was 3 months post-op, I did quite a few biomechanical tests and had an MRI courtesy of the study. The other day I had my year-2 follow-up tests. Full results are to come, but I learned some instant data:

My quads & hammies on my r leg are way stronger than 2 years ago (like about 25% stronger).
My weight is 90.5kg, up 10.0 kg from Jan 07.

I’m having another MRI on Sat. It’ll be good to find out how it’s going inside the r knee.

Now this weight thing has definitely gone too far! In Feb ‘08 I was 78kg. Even in May ‘08 I was 80kg, so this weight gain has been rapid.

My waist this morning is a cuddly 96cm. It was as narrow as mid 80s a year ago. 96 is higher than the federal government’s recommended 94cm for males. Being over that benchmark is disgraceful.

I ran an average of ~150km per month from Jan 08 through to Sep 08. Since the half marathon in Oct ‘08 I haven’t done much running (shin soreness). I guess maintaining a half marathoner’s diet during this period hasn’t been too smart!

Another factor is the fact that I started tapering off Zoloft in Aug 08. I was taking 200mg/day then. Just now I’ve reached zero. I read that it is associated with weight gain when being taken, not so much when you’re tapering off.

Anyway, my plan is to make the following simple changes to my diet & lifestyle:
No more added sugar.
Read labels. If it’s got more than 10% sugar, avoid it.
Kitchen pantry closed for business at 8:30pm.
Eat breakfast an hour or so after getting up, not immediately.
Stay away from Bread Top (Asian bakery).
Eat as many vegies as I like.
Do not buy packets of lollies.
Don’t eat all of the kid’s leftovers all of the time, unless it’s vegies.
Cook vegetarian dinners for the family more often.
Be enthusiastic about salads & soups for dinner.
Check out the CSIRO recipe books. I think they’ll be exactly compatible with my goals & those of the family.
Average 1 alcoholic drink per 3 weeks (have already been doing this for a few months).
Start doing a weekly 2-3 hour walk (with tiny bits of running thrown in). If this means getting up at 5:30am on a weekend, so be it !
Slowly build up the running (got the OK to do so from the sports physician). By the end of Feb be back to 4 runs and 30km per week.
On non-running days make sure a decent brisk walk or bike ride happens.
Give riding to work a go. Really.
Check & post my weight & waist each fortnight.

I’m going with the theory that sugar, rather than fat, is the major culprit. Please don’t confuse this with a low carb diet. I know carbs are vital fuel for active people. I want to cut right back on the sugars (high GI stuff). I think what I’m talking about here would be very compatible with diabetes recipes, so I should check out some diabetes recipe books.

I’m seriously considering doing a 50km charity walk/run in May to benefit the Dalit children of India. All of the above will appropriate steps.

This year I want to read novels and some non-fiction from the library and do a lot less skimming snippets of info in the internet. That is, I want to take time out to delve into and contemplate an author’s prose. Have already started. Currently reading ‘Disgrace’ by JM Coetzee. This book won the booker prize in 1999 and I believe is currently being made into a film.

I’ll refer back to this post during the year and check off how I’m going.

Rest, Ice, Stretch, Massage

2008-12-23T16:29:00.002+11:00

These are what I've been told to do.

Well, I've been resting (from running) and done a nifty little stretch the podiatrist showed me a few times. Icing & self-massage has been a non-event. My shin has definitely improved from the resting. I can do the hop test with no pain.

It's so close to a new year that I might as well set a comeback to running date of 01/01/2009.

My cardio vascular system would be capble of an easy 5k, but I'll do what my legs need. 1 min runs during walks and gradually building from there.

Wolfe is mad. He can't run with the pack.

2008-12-05T13:29:00.002+11:00

Aka stopped running towards something ugly that i saw.

Right shin, sore since September is still playing up. Today saw a sports physician at OPSMC. The statoinary hop test was most revealing. Pain on each landing. He thinks its a stress reaction, not a fracture at this stage.

Management plan is no running or long walkies for 4 weeks. Sports massage recommended. Re-visit in new year with x-ray of leg in hand. (huh?)

Got the green light to ride in to work. 'bout time I started doing that.

Psychologically I'm taking the running ban ok at the moment. Running's been unenjoyable for 2 months due to naggy ache anyway.

Kms declaration:
Oct 08: 88.
Nov 08: 78.

----

Today's title is the opening line from 'Wolfe', track 2 on Steve Kilbey's new album 'Piankiller'. Can't get over how creative yet overlooked SK has been since the Under the Milkyway spotlight moved on. He's so prolific with his albums with The Church, part time collaborations, solo stuff, arkwork and wonderful blog writing. Quantity and, as I'm discovering, quality stuff. How anyone can churn out entries in a blog with such vivid imagery on a daily basis is beyone me. As for this Paikiller album that I've just bought, first listen had many 'that's perfects' along side many 'wtfs?' By the time the 3rd listen was done I was completely sold. The following tracks I find absoluetly superb:

Outbound
Wolfe
Celestial
Chystalline Rush
(first 4 tracks, wow!).
Oenone
Not what you say (the first 15 mins)

The rest are all very good, no duds.
78 min CD (incl 15 min of aquatic sounds & whale calls).

Full lyrics for Wolfe:

Wolfe is mad
He can't run with the pack

Ah things went bad
Out the back

Ah Wolfe is sad
Ah I don't know
Crash his pad
Out in the snow

It's like a thousand little angels on the point of a pin
There's no sense in describing the place that he's in
It's like a filigree diamond filched from a ring
Just keep still and stop

Howling

Wolfe feels good
Ah I'm not sure
If he couldAnymore

Ah Wolfe can't see
Ah that's no good
He can't see the tree
For the wood

It's like a thousand little angels on the point of a pin
There's no sense in describing the place that he's in
It's like a filigree diamond filched from a ring
Just keep still and stop

Howlin.....

Mature, clever, imaginative music played by talented people who've lived a bit of life and have something to say obut their observations. Not safe & predicable 'Adult Orientated Rock'. What 'AOR' radio stations play in utopia.

---------

Music is my emotional outlet.

------

Meanwhile:

I found this on a Schizoid forum. It's written by the wife (possiblly now ex-wife) of someone likely to have a Schizoid Personality Style/Disorder (not my wife). How'd ya like to be married to him?:

"First off, he has always been very absent of emotion. Unfortunately, I think he was able to 'hide' it better when we were dating. After we got married, the real issues began. The situations I have noticed are:

Emotions--simply put, he has none. Nothing excites him, he has no hobbies except surfing the internet and watching tv. There is no cuddling, canoodling, or expressions of love with the exception of occasional hand-holding. Nothing is ever exciting at all--I could tell him he won the lottery, and he would look blankly at me and say "cool". The only emotion he expresses is anger or indifference. There is no "i love you" from him without a lot of prodding--which I no longer do. If he cannot or will not say it on his own, then I don't want to hear it.

Romance and Sex---this is a hard one for me. While sex has never been a high priority for him, it has gotten significantly worse. If I try to initiate sex, it does not happen. If we have sex, he is the one who initiates it. While we are having sex, it is very uncomfortable. There is no foreplay, no kissing, he literally lays there and asks me what I want him to do to me. He is totally silent during sex--he never says a word at all. When he ejaculates, he is totally silent. It is as if there is no pleasure at all in what he is doing. On the topic of ejaculation, he is very "speedy". Its almost like he just wants to get it over with as quickly as possible. There are the occasional weeks where we will have sex a couple of times, but usually its a 7-10 day stretch. I realize this is not excessive by any means, but its really more about the quality of the intimacy. Its just not there.

As far as romance goes, there is none. No opening of doors anymore, no flowers, no polite gestures. I am the one to plan date night when we do have one, he would be content eating at the same restaurant every day. I have never heard the words you look nice, you are beautiful, I am so lucky to have you, etc. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but I am an attractive woman. I get picked up by men all the time, and I take very good care of myself. I have had previous relationships where these things were never an issue. Also, he rarely masturbates. Maybe 4 or 5 times a year. He calls me a freak because I want to have sex a couple times a week.

Communication--not good at all. We will sit for hours and he will never say a word. His main mode of communication is farting or burping. When he calls me on his lunch break, he just sits there on the phone and says "yeah" over and over. I try to have a conversation with him--just asking how is your day, whats for lunch, etc and I get 1 word answers, and then silence. I cannot approach him about any big issues (relationship, financial, personal, or aggravations) because he will either just shut down and not say a word, or he will find a way to make it all my fault, make me feel like crap, and I end up apologizing. He never wants to talk about anything--even fun stuff. I try to keep it light to keep him talking to me, but he is just very argumentative and when you give another opinion, he shoots it down and then quits talking.

Friends--he has NO close friends at all. His cell phone never rings. In the past year, he has gone out with another guy 2 times. Both times were car related, and 1 time I was with him. He has no close confidants at all.

Family and Pets--his parents died at a very young age, and he has written all of his family off except his grandmother. He hates his cousins, his sister, aunts and uncles, and has zero communication with any of them. Its not their choice, its his. His grandmother is very important to him, he calls her everyday. But they never "talk". She tells him about her day, and then they hang up. We have 2 dogs, and they are the center of his universe. They are the receivers of any love and affection. It almost makes me jealous because they get hugs and kisses and love and cuddling that I never get.

He never balances a checkbook, and does not pay any of our bills. I do all of that. He does not cook, and aside from cleaning up after the dogs, he does not clean. "

I think I can safely say I'm not as bad as him, but we're on the same tram. I'll try to use him as motivation to get on a different route.

----

I 'spose I'll keep up the sporadic posting, even though the interest rates appear to be equivalent to a Sharia Bank's.....

Tilt

2008-10-30T09:15:00.003+11:00

Watched this doco on abc2 on Sunday night called 'Scott Walker: 30 century man' about the career of this former member of the Walker Brothers (who were neither brothers, nor Walkers). The WBs were huge for a while in the mid 60s, especially in England. Remember the song with the chorus 'the sun aint gonna shine any more, the moon aint gonna rise in the sky.....' that was a big WBs hit with Scott's big deep voice on lead vocals. They did mega-ballads with Phil Spectre-like production.

Anyway the young and gorgeous Scott had trouble dealing with his beatles-like fame and couldn't perform on stage any more. The band split and Scott rapidly put out 4 solo albums in the late 60s titled Scott, Scott2, Scott3 & Scott4. The first 3 did well on the English charts but S4 bombed. The WBs re-formed for a while in the mid 70s and had a hit with 'no regrets' again with Scott's big voice on vocs:

there's no regrets
no tears goodbye
i don't want you back
we'd only cryyyyyyy again
say goodbyyyyyyyye again.....

Powerful lyrics when you think about them.

I first read about Scott's solo career about 5 years ago on a music forum. Mostly it was impassioned ravings about how brilliant his albums are. I've always had him in the back of my mind as someone to explore so I was very interested to watch the doco.

He's been reclusive since the '70s and only released one album in each of the '80s, 90s (called tilt) & 00s (the drift).

I'm now contemplating whether I should delve into this guy. My reservations come from the descriptions of tilt & the drift that I've read & the short snippets I heard on the doco. From what I've read, starting with Scott3 & 4 would be a good way to go. Apparently they are very different to anything that was around at the time. Full of strings, wonderful singing and emotional impact, but with some very, very dark themes going on.

Some music has the ability to elicit strong emotional responses in me. It's good when it happens. The release. I know what will happen if i get Scott3 & 4. I'll fall madly in love with them and want to get 'tilt' and 'the drift'. Trouble is, apparently these are utterly terrifying albums which you will likely hate, love and become addicted to. You will be compelled to listen in a darkened room and come out completely disturbed. Apparently there's not a melody, verse or chorus to be found on the drift. Discordant strings. Quiet moments shattered by pure horror. And he does something with his voice that people can't describe. Like staring into the abyss (whatever that is). A journey into his vision of hell. I've got young kids. It would be wrong to have CDs like this in my house.

----

Oh yeah I ran 8.0 k yesterday. First run since the Mhm. Shin is OK. Had 2 osteopath appointments.

---

I am movembering this year. If you'd like to contribute please go here and enter 1564576 as the Registration Number:

https://www.movember.com/au/donate/donate-search.php

Finisher

2008-10-20T11:57:00.004+11:00

2008 Melb half marathon finish:

Melb half marathon 2008

2008-10-13T13:23:00.000+11:00

A 1:55. And big negative splits are cool.

I arrived at the MCG at 6:30am and after wasting 15 min unsuccessfully trying to drop of my bag I went back to where I’d locked my bike up & left the bag there. I then should have gone to the MCG toilets to do no.1s and no.2s, but foolishly headed to the start area instead. Of course there were long toilet queues at the start area so didn’t get to go. I was down the back so there was no chance of starting with the 1:50 pacers. The first k or so was very congested & slow which I wasn’t concerned about. I went to a toilet block near The Tan and had a wee. The cubicles were too busy so no.2s were deferred again. I walked and drank through the first 3 drink stations. I crossed the halfway mark in just on the hour. Along Beaconsfield Pde (12k’ish mark) I ducked into a toilet block and did no.2s. I also loosened my shoelaces during this pit stop as my feet were a bit tingly/numb (I decided to wear 2 pairs of socks, which seemed to have made my shoes too tight). At last I was running with no toilet concerns and blood freely flowing into my feet. What a relief.

From here I was passing a heap of people and very few passed me. I remembered feeling ordinary from the 12k mark last year, but this year was different. I had barely noticed the Fitzroy St ‘hill’ as I passed the coolrunning cheer squad. I grabbed one last water satchel as we hit St Kilda Rd I wasn’t thirsty so I just squirted it on my head. I kept on going at a good pace along St Kilda Rd passing virtually everyone around me. When I got to 3k to go I thought ‘less than a lap of The Tan to go, and no Anderson St hill’.

My legs were really quite tired at about the 19k mark and I was very keen for this thing to be over, but it going. We ran past a bloke lying on the road being attended to by medicos on Flinders St. There was a nice downhill bit before entering the MCG. I looked around and soaked it up once inside. Some of the seating bays looked full! We were running in front of quite a crowd! I ran a 1:55:16 by my watch which is a small PB. I’m not at all disappointed about not getting the sub 1:50. From the start I knew I was in for toilet stop/s and quickly accepted this. Also, the first 2ks were very slow due to congestion.

I’m very happy with the big –ve split, and that’s including the 4-5 min pit stop in the 2nd half. Finishing strong is certainly the way to finish a half marathon.

Joined the group of CRs at the Transport bar and cheered on the marathoners before heading home to put the feet up & try to justify to the kids why I didn’t win or at least come second. They are far from convinced.

Tapering in the time of yellow wee

2008-10-09T11:57:00.002+11:00

Ahhh yes I’m in the middle of my 2nd ever taper as I prepare for my 2nd ever half marathon on this Sunday.

September stats:
18 runs
168.3 kms (5 of those barefoot)
Pace: ranging from low to high 5s (min/k)
Longest run: 22.4 km (133 min on feet) which is in fact my longest ever run.
Resting HR:47
Weight: 85kg. I really am miffed about this recent unintended weight gain.

Running highlight:
Hmmm pretty mundane month really.

Lowlight:
September was windy. Running in the wind ain’t much chop.
Since mid Sept my R calf has been a bit sore and my R shin a bit splinty.

Things I saw:
Right at the start of the 22.4km long run while I was plodding at 6:00 pace a young lady flew past me at about 4:30 pace. It’s quite a surprise seeing another runner about at 6:30 on a Sat morn Werribee, let alone a fast young lady. I said ‘morning’ but she had music on & probably didn’t hear me. I saw her again several ks later as she was returning from her loop still with good form and pace. Good to know there’s a strong young runner in the neighbourhood.

Also on this run I saw a group of women exercising under the watchful eye and instruction of their bossy female personal trainer. I see them each time I run early on a Saturday. One woman, about size 18, had a rope tied around her waist and on the other end of the rope was a car tyre. She was scrambling up the steep bank of the Werribee river, dragging the tyre. Surely that’s working her too hard! It has to be an injury or de-motivation waiting to happen. I really can’t understand how someone is motivated to get up a 6am on a Sat, drive to a park (I see their cars parked) only to be ordered to do short sharp exercises to the point of exhaustion. Why would you choose to do that over a free run/brisk walk or bike ride or whatever?

Shin pain
Apart from prodding several times with my thumb to find the spot, rubbing some voltaren on it a couple of times and some extra stretching I’ve been ignoring it. This morning I took some voltaren tabs to see how that makes it feel. I might take some more on Sunday morning as I really don’t want to run in pain. This may need some attention and recovery time after Sunday.

No pace-maker required
Had a routine check of my BP the other day. 3 readings were all good. The machine also measured pulse which was 47. The woman asked ‘do you work on getting your pulse low?’. I told her I run & she said ‘It shows and just as well you do because otherwise you’d need a pace-maker.’

Taper stuff
Despite drinking heaps of water my wee is bright yellow as I’ve taken a few Italian effervescent multi-vitamins (Beroccas) in recent days in an 11th hour attempt to be at my best on Sunday.

Also been eating extra fruit & veg (OK, and chocolate and lollies) for a couple of weeks.

I’ll be trying to get to bed by 10:00 for the next 3 nights and a sleep-in on Sat would be lurrrrrrrrrverly.

I mustn’t forget to attach the timing thingy to my shoe & get the bike ready for riding as I’ll park in Sth Melb & ride the rest of the way to the start.

Race plan:
Pretty simple. Start with the 1:50 pacer and if all going well at the 15k mark try to track down, and ideally pass the 1:45 bus.

Lyrics:
Currently loving Steve Kilbey's work on The Church's Priest=Aura album. So many mind bending gems. eg:
'Everybody hates the bastards in power
But their pill is sugar coated'

Many of his songs are stories with a perfect blend of intrigue, humour, terror, anger and bleakness. And I love his voice and his bass playing. I love Steve Kilbey!

Barefoot in the park

2008-09-12T11:50:00.000+10:00

I’ve finally done some barefoot running and it feels great. A couple of weeks ago I checked out a footy oval at Galvin Park, Werribee which is a 12 min gentle run from home. It’s obviously one of the ovals that has a permit to water it as the grass is in very good condition. On my first visit there I did just 2 laps barefoot (~1k) and last weekend I did 5 laps barefoot.

When I run in shoes my feet often take about 20min to settle in. By that I mean slight crampy niggles in the arch & general slight discomfort. I had that feeling during the 12 min run to the park but as soon as I started barefoot my feet felt really great. Feeling the grass & sinking slightly into the softer bits is lovely.

Also had a couple of teenage girls giving me ‘encouragement’ when I went past them at each lap. I got my first ‘run forest run’ (& I’ve never even seen that movie). Other comments included ‘come on’, ‘faster’, ‘……..olympics’, ‘get some shoes!’ They must have been pretty bored to be hanging around a footy ground on non-match day so I was happy to provide them with some entertainment.

There’s a good chance I’ll be back there regularly to do more barefoot stuff.

Another highlight run was a 130 min epic in the evening of Saturday 23/08. I started at 8:40pm & got home around 11. An interesting way to spend a Sat night. All up, I’d say it was probably a better option than watching the Audrey Hepburn movie on ABC2.

Another running related highlight was getting some excel formula help from the legendary ‘The Rev Dodgson’ from the ABC Tech Talk forum. He gave me a formula using the sumproduct function which automatically calculates weekly running totals ‘on the fly’. I adapted the formula to calc monthly totals on the fly too. So now when I enter the details of a run, the spreadsheet automatically updates the current weekly & mthly total! So pleasing!

So monthly total for August curtesy of my spreadsheet is:

Kms: 171

Other stats:

Weight 84kg – Oh man, I’m training & gaining. WTFIGO?

Waist: 89cm I’m gonna keep a closer eye on that now, instead of weight. I’d like a low 80s number.

Shoes:
It really is time to retire (& probably dispose of) 3 pairs that have done 800 - >1,000k.

Six weeks ago I got a pair of brooks adrenalines which I ordered online from running warehouse (which cost me only AU$110). My first time in brooks & they seem fine though maybe half a size too big.

The other day, my second pair to Loco Xpressos arrived in the mail. I’ve done at least 1,000k in the first pair plus plenty of walking too. Loco are phasing out the Xpresso model so they are currently on sale for only $80 (postage included). I recommend these shoes, they are light and have a bit of stability for the over-pronators. Like all Locos they are not at all fashionable to look at. Me no care. Likely to be wearing the Locos on the day of the Melb half…..

Speaking of which, I must get out for another 120 min + run this weekend.

Dilemma resolved

2008-08-12T14:01:00.002+10:00

Being one who prefers to avoid almost everything bar avoidance, it follows that I'm not good at making a commitment and dislike parting with money. So my dilemma was to either commit early to the 2008 Melb half marathon to get a discounted entry fee or reserve the option to not enter, but have to pay full whack should I choose to enter. I bit the bullet and entered early, so I'm in for my second consecutive Melb half.

Stats for July were:

total time running: 16h 54m
~ks: 188 (2nd highest ever)
longest individual run: 15.4k
weight: haven't checked for a while but I think I'm gaining (an Asian bakery with many sweet and savoury buns & pastries has opened near work).

Illness/injury:
Had a few days off with a windy gastro type thing. ($3 worth of smoked almonds consumed in 30 mins seemed to play a role. I love nuts, but if I eat a lot I seem to get this type of reaction).

On 3 Aug I did the rat run coastal trail (18k) with a bunch of other coolrunners. I did this instead of the 34k Bellarine rail trail as luckily I had a moment of clarity & realised that I wasn't up to a 34k run. My L knee pulled up a bit puffy after this run & it remains slightly puffy. Running on it is OK. On Sun 10 Aug I did a 2hr (~20.5k) run which didn't affect it.

I'm not following any formal program in the lead up to Melb hm. I will ensure I do 2 or 3 more runs in the 20-23k range. I might do a hm in Geelong in early Sept. Other runs will be in the 7-12km range 4 or 5 times a week.

Music:
There's about 150 cds from the last 40 years that I'd like to own. If only the effort in acquiring and getting to know them wasn't so great. I treated myself the other day & got three of them:

The Church: Priest = Aura (I'd like to hug Steve Kilby & that's sayin' somethin').

Opeth: Blackwater Park (superb stuff. Top notch metal. Now I'm gonna have to get more of their stuff. Their later stuff has very little if any 'cookie monster' vocals, which is good as I'm over that. Who Isn't?).

Television: Marquee Moon (had to check out what all the critical hype is about). I'm getting used to the singer's odd voice. This is a very stripped down twin guitar rock album, but the way they play & their song structure defies category. Kinda like punk played by jazz trained musicians (or maybe vice versa). Sometimes they sound like they're playing to the very limit of their ability, maybe slightly beyond, but it never becomes a train wreck. Some of the guitar solos are soaring beauties (almost Alex Lifeson of Rush-like). And the lyrics are simple yet mysterious. This bank would have been great to see live, in 1977, at CBGBs.

Very happy with these very different albums (bargains at JB). The only things they have in common is non-typical song structures and twin guitars right up front.

Running on (lactic) acid

2008-07-08T10:16:00.001+10:00

I ran in the Bolte Bolt last week. This is a fortnightly run from Docklands Park to underneath the Bolte Bridge and return. It’s approx 4.4 - 4.5k. I started out with the group who were aiming for an 18 – 20 min run (it’s a roughly handicapped event). There were 5 of us in the group. I ran in last place for the first 1.5k, just running at a controlled pace and not letting them get too far away. I got the feeling that most, if not all of them were doing it pretty hard and would die in the arse in the second half. Sure enough by half way I’d passed a couple and passed the other two with about 1k to go. I nearly gave it my all over the last km (held a little back). I finished in a time of 18:33 which is just over 4 min/km pace. Pretty happy with that considering the first 1.5k was probably about 5 min / km pace.

It’s been ages since I had that feeling of lactic acid in the system!

As an indication of how I still had something left to give at the end, I was able to walk along (in lieu of collapsing) while I counted my pulse for 15 seconds. 39 beats in 15 secs equates to a heart rate of ~ 156. Various generic formulae suggest that the max HR for a 42yo is in the mid-high 170s. There is mounting evidence that my Max HR is quite a bit lower than that (granted, counting pulse for 15 sec is a pretty crude method but the highest I’ve measured it has been high 150s). I’m not drawing any great conclusions from this, but it’s interesting to know.

The Sri Chinmoy Como Landing run on Sun 6 July is another in a string of runs that I’ve considered doing but failed to get to. We had some family arriving at 1pm for lunch and with all the mucky muck to be accomplished beforehand it just wasn’t worth trying to fit in a trip to the city for a 14km run.

This Sunday there’s a 10k run along the Maribyrnong River that I won’t be able to do because were visiting my parents which requires separate visits to Fern Tree Gully and Canterbury.

I’m now thinking of doing either the Coburg half marathon on 27 July or the Bellarine Rail trail run from Geelong to Queenscliffe (34k) on 03 Aug.

Whilst I haven’t done many runs over 15k in recent months, my monthly average has been around 150k over the last 12 months which I think is enough base to enter a half marathon. Also I did do a 20k run a couple of weeks ago. 34k is certainly a huge run for me (my longest ever run is about 22k). My positive side says that if I ‘Gallowalk’ the first part (ie alternate running for ~9mins with walking for 1 min for the first 90 mins) I could finish in pretty good shape. Another plus for the Bellarine is it’s mostly soft trail whereas the Coburg HM is concrete bike path. Hmmmm I think I’m talking myself into Bellarine.

Stats for June are:

Time: 15hrs:55mins
Ks: ~175
No injuries or other dramas.

Coming good

2008-06-12T15:46:00.002+10:00

May 08 stats:
Runs: 15
Time on feet: 9hrs 16 mins
~ks: 106.5
Av pace: 5:13 min/k
Injuries: nil
Illness: chest infection
Resting HR: 49
Weight: 80kg
Noteworthy: no runs over 10ks (ooops!)
Highlight: Getting passed by someone on a run near home. Why is that a highlight? Well I don't see many runners around home, let alone any who pass me. Also, I think it was a bloke who lives across the road from me!

I've put on a couple of kgs probably due to reduced ks and after dinner snackies. Also I've gotta get out & do some long runs. Also I've replaced coffee with no sugar with hot chocolate with one sugar in the evenings. I don't like hot choc without sugar even though I know the choc powder is virtually all sugar (go figure).

I've only started feeling well in the last week. That chest infection was brutal. I was pleased to get over the 100ks in May under the circumstances. My first run in June wasn't until the 5th. Since then I've run every day. That's 8 days in a row. My previous longest streak was 6 days. I'll have an active rest day on the weekend. It may be foolish for me to be having such a streak but I'm listening to my body & I'm feeling up for it each day. Also there's been nothing over 11ks in the streak & the pace is comfy so I don't think I'm going too much over the top.

The Coburg Bluestone Classic (15k incl 7k of very tough cross country) is on this Saturday. I did this last year in 81 mins & would be a good chance to get well under 80 this year, but I've decided not to run it for various reasons.

I was going to run the Battle of Bannockburn 10k fun run, but I've just noticed it's been cancelled. Bugger! OK maybe Sri Chinmoy @ Como landing 14k on 6 July will be the go.

Shoes wise, I've got 3 pair in rotation & they've all done 500-850ks. In terms of durability I'd say Loco>Asics>Nike. My next pair will be Loco Mojos (I think). I'll have to bring myself to dispose of some of my worm out shoes as the pile of them is not approved of.

No sense, no feeling

2008-05-19T09:51:00.002+10:00

Well that cold I picked up turned into a persistent & debilitating respiratory tract infection. The amount of stuff that I've coughed up & blown out is incredible. I've nearly finished the course of antibiotics and am finally feeling about 95% now.

I did my first run in 10 days on Saturday. It was just a run from home to pick up my car from the auto electricians on the other side of Werribee. It was about 5.5k in 28:49.

I knew it was cold & rainy before I started, but I was quite happy to finally be resuming. The numbness in my hands cleared up after about 15 mins and I was feeling nice & comfortable from that point forward. The auto electrician said 'geez you're keen' when he saw me arrive in my shorts & T shirt. I reassured him by saying 'it's OK, I'm a runner!'

I had to leave the car with the ae as the novelty of driving with only 2 gears (2nd & reverse!) wears off quick. Thanks to google I knew it was a good idea to take it to an ae rather than an auto transmission place. Chances are I would have been up for a new transmission (~$2k) if I'd taken it to a trans place. Google said that only having 2nd gear can be the car's 'limp' mode, which it goes into when the transmission control unit carks it. It suggested disconnecting the battery for a few minutes to allow the electrical system to reset. I tried that but it didn't work so it was off to the ae. He didn't have any suitable transmission control units on site so he had to goto a wreckers and take pot luck. He wasn't even able to test it until he bought it & fitted it to my car. Luckily the unit from the wreck is working & the ae has given me a 30 warranty on it. He said he could give me a 12 mth warranty if I get it reconditioned first at a cost of about $300 extra. I decided I'm feeling lucky, so I didn't get the re-co. I'm back on the road with all gears for $220 all up. It's good when you find a technician who cares & you can trust.

With only 25k of running in May so far my goal is to keep my triple figure monthly total streak going.

Consistency: Runny

2008-05-07T09:17:00.003+10:00

April 08 has been my runniest month ever. Stats:

time on feet: 18h:41m
~ks: 204 (first time over 200)
~ av pace: 5:29
runs: 23
nbr of >90 min runs: only 1.
races: nil
injuries: nil

Stats from recent work-funded health assessment:
weight: 80.4 (clothed)
height: 184.5 (I thought I was a cm taller, maybe I WAS)!

resting hr:49
bp: fine

Running highlights:
Doing the 3 ks with my son!
Doing the Rat Run coastal trail from Black Rock to Brighton & return with coolrunner GreyBeard.
Getting off the train at Newport station & running the rest of the way to work (10k). Actually, this wasn't really a highlight run, pretty ordinary route, but it was something different. Also, getting the logistics right the day before so that I could run with a train ticket but no backpack AND get access to the building on arrival AND have jocks, socks, trousers and ironed shirt to wear AND have my shower gear & a drink waiting for me AND have money to buy breakfast AND have my mobile phone available AND be able to get into my car at the end of the day was quite a triumph. I wrote down the required steps for my future reference.

I'd like to be doing 2-3 runs over 90 min each month, just so a half marathon is pretty much always an option.

Only 2 runs in May so far as I've had a cold. I was intending a light week anyway, but a cold wasn't part of the plan.

My urologist reckons I've probably got a 'Japanese bladder', which is a technical term for what I was describing in my last post. I told him my prostate was fine just 9 months ago when the GP checked it. Was this good enough with him? Noooo, he insisted on checking it himself. Actually it's not too bad. It certainly doesn't hurt. As long as you don't brood on the thought of it afterwards it's fine. Anyway the protate is not enlarged. I'm having a number of tests which may help in determining what isn't working quite right, the tests will also rule out the very very tiny chance that it's some type of Spanish dancer.

In the meantime, I'm gonna keep on running. I'm not locking in any particular race, but upcoming Sri Chinmoys, Coburg Aths fun runs, a low key HM at Geelong and of course the Melb HM are all on the horizon.

VVS 3k

2008-04-15T14:02:00.002+10:00

A couple of relatively big weeks for me. So far in April I've done just over 10 hours / 109km running. Hoping to do over 190k.....OK over 200k this month (or sometime soon).

Most runs have been before work starting from Docklands, doing a lap or so of the tan & heading back. I like running up the Anderson st hill. Well, 'like' is probably not the word.

On Sunday morning I tried out a different route to the standard Werribee river path. I headed towards Cobbledick Ford which apparently is a river crossing/picnic spot between Werribee & Melton (I've never actually been there).

Due to time constraints I knew I probably wouldn't get all the way there, that was OK as at least I'd do a partial recon. I ran along Davis Rd which is a straight, flat, quiet dirt road. Good surface for running. Left into Sayers Rd. This part of Sayers Rd is sealed, very quiet and is mostly gradual incline. I got to the corner of Sewells Rd in about 33 mins and it was time to turn around. The scenery was nothing to write home about but at least it was something different. On checking the Melways when i got home I was still well short of Cobbledicks Ford. I think I'd better ride there on the mountain bike to fully check it out before trying to run there.

The very very special 3k'er was a 70% run 30% walk with my just turned 7 year old son! He was very chatty the whole time so apparently it was pretty easy. He looked pretty athletic when he ditched the long sleeved T shirt and ran in his chest bonds singlet!

Health:
The elbow bursitis is 95% settled. That last bit of niggle is tough to budge.

I've had frequent urination and sudden urgent urge issues for many years. The prostate has been checked & there's no problem. In the last 5 months it's getting worse, to the point where I've actually had 4 incidents of urge incontinence (basically this is involuntarily starting before you can reach the toilet). I'm seeing a urologist on the 5th of May. Likely treatment will be retraining the system by holding on as long as possible (which could be quite 'risky') and strenghening the pelvic floor muscles over 4-6 months.

I don't get any leakage when running (that's stress incontinence). Urge incontinence is more about muscle spasticity in the system and/or the brain sending the message to purge prematurely. Being under 60 & male puts me out of the most common demographic for this issue. Oh well!

2 runs in one night

2008-04-02T10:56:00.002+11:00

March 08 stats:
Runs: 16
Time on feet: 14h 50min
Ks: ~145
Av pace: ~ 6:08
Steps / min: 180 (checked a couple of times)
HR at end of typical 5:15 paced run: mid 140s
Weight: 78kg
Waist: ~ 86cm
Resting HR: 47
BP: 120/62 (when giving blood)

Highlight:
Hamilton Island trails!

Injuries:
Nil!

Thoughts:
Motivation is good. Happy that my cadence is naturally around the recommended rate.

Excluding the steep Hamilton Island running/walking my av running pace would be have been ~ 5:15. I didn't have enough time to do the Geelong HM or volunteer for R4tK. I managed to squeeze in a fast-ish 10k run on Sunday afternoon at about 5:05 pace.

2 runs in one night?
At 8:30 last night I did a 29 min (~5.3k) run along the Werribee river. At 7:00 this morning I set off in the dark on a run from Docklands to The Tan. I did a lap & returned to Docklands. 57 min on feet (~10.3 ks).

The reason I decided to run this morning is the weather forecast for this arvo spooked me.

Hilly Island & hilly elbow

2008-03-18T15:27:00.001+11:00

Back from our family holiday on Hamilton Island. Lovely time had by all and I learned a few things:

Resting on your elbow for a long period can be a health hazard!
Hamilton Island is hilly and the trails are rocky!

On the flight up I had my elbow on the arm rest much of the time (as you do). The tip of my L elbow became somewhat irritated and sensitive to pressure about 90 min into the flight, so I stopped leaning on it, except for multiple times I forgot to keep off it (ouch!). By the time we arrived it looked like I had a squash ball in my elbow.

A $95 consultation with Hamilton Island’s GP later, I was diagnosed with bursitis of the elbow (a symptom of middle-age I suppose).

For the first couple of days I got a very sharp pain every time the point of my elbow touched something (even bed sheets)! The pain has reduced but the swelling is still there (despite NSAIDS). Apparently a cortisone shot is a possible next step. The good news is it has no affect on my running.

I hit the Hamilton Island walking trails 3 times. The fist time I went up the highest peak on the island, Passage Peak. It was windy, warm & wet! At the top there were great views………of the rain pelting down at a 30 deg angle due to the wind. It was exhilarating! The rainwater was not cold, so I was drenched but warm. I did about 60% running & 40% steep climbing. It was a good 90 min workout.

The second time on the trails was about 45 min of mostly running. After this I got a map of the trails from the resort reception. I decided to hit the trails one more time for a long hitout. Basically my plan was to do try to do ALL of the remaining trails. I drove the golf buggy to the starting point to save a bit of time. I set off just after 6am hoping to be back by 8. This time I had a backpack with water, nibbles, camera, phone, bodyglide etc. First off I completed the trip to South West (or was it East?) Head. This was quite a bit easier than Passage Peak, so I did a fair bit of running. The map showed a trail basically parallel to the one I was on 100m or so to the right. I was hoping to cut across to this trail which lead to Escape Beach (which I was keen to see). Unfortunately the scrub was far too thick & prickly to cut across, so I had to retrace my steps a few ks back to a junction. Once there I set off on the trail to Escape Beach. The map indicated that the trail to Escape Beach goes from ‘challenging’ to ‘hard’ a third of the way in. I knew the terrain was no where near as hilly as the Passage Peak track so I was confident I be able to run most of the way & make up time. Wrong!

The reason it’s hard is not steepness, it’s the fact that it becomes a rock-lined dry-ish creek bed. The rocks were about the size of baseballs & they shifted with every step. I persisted for a while & got some nice photos but it soon became clear that I didn’t have time to do Escape Beach via this route (running was out of the question, not turning your ankle on every step was more the goal).

I turned around & got to another junction where I headed to a place on the map called Mangrove Flats. I got there easily enough & had a look around at the mangroves. I was now probably on about 20 mins away from Escape Beach on a trail marked as moderate, but I knew if I went there I’d be very late, so I left it for next time.

I ran a good chunk of the way back to the buggy. This was a really good workout. Over 2.5 hours on my feet. I did more running than walking. I reckon my heart rate would have been lower when I was running the flats & downhills compared to walking up the steep bits! Steep bushwalking is tough work!

Since getting back to Melb I’ve done 4 more runs in the 8km vicinity, in the early morning to avoid the heat.

I didn't manage to get to Coburg for the 'king & queen of Coburg' run last Sunday.

Leap day

2008-02-29T09:01:00.002+11:00

It's the morning of Fri 29th Feb & my only chance of getting a run in today will be a 6k'er at about 9 pm tonight. If this doesn't happen my stats for Feb are:

Runs: 15
~ k's: 162
time on feet: 14h 39m
~ av. pace: 5:26
resting HR: 48
weight: 78

Not too bad considering my first run in Feb wasn't until the 4th.

Good (running related) things for the month have been:

Doing a few long runs (longest 19.6k).
Varying my pace more, ranging from a sharp 4:15 paced short run to a 6:00 pace long run.
Varying the time of day that I run, mixing mornings, lunchtimes & evenings. I'm pretty flexible in this regard. No strong preference.
Continuing to meet up with my brother for some lunchtime runs.

In a previous post I mentioned that I ran to MacRobertson bridge & back with my brother. On Wednesday I realised I had that wrong, we only went to Chapel St that time, but on Wed we did go all the way to MacRobertson (past Herring Is, along the pontoon, nice run). I reckon I did over 13ks on that run (boss in Sydney - looong lunch).

The run was hard surface & a bit quick. The soft tissues around my knees have been a bit weary since then (confident it's not an actual injury). I've been having active rest since then. I also noticed an ammonia smell emanating from moiré after the run! Dr Google says I was consuming protien at a rate faster than my kidneys could handle, caused by not enough carb consumption prior to the run. Live & learn.

It turns out I wont be able to do the Werribee River fun run on Sat Mar 15. Plan B is to pop over to Coburg on the morning of Sun 16th to run the 12k 'King & Queen of the lake' fun run.

Two weeks leave for me now. Qld family holiday from 4th-12th Mar. My dad is having surgery on 12 Mar too.

A long run done

2008-02-11T13:01:00.000+11:00

Ended up doing about 123ks in Jan @ about 5:11 min/km pace. 16 runs in Jan.

I've met up with my brother at Southbank for a couple of lunchtime runs. He took up running in 2005 & is certainly pretty fit now (he's 47). On our first run together we went down to MacRobertson Bridge & return at about 5 min/k pace (or maybe a touch quicker). He did a 12k race yerterday in just under an hour. Pretty good considering his longest run ever so far is about 12-13k.

Before our next run together I said I want to go a bit slower, and he blamed me for the pace of our first run! Anyway our second run was at a more civilised ~5:25 pace. We'll be doing it again on Wednesday & likely thereafter.

Yesterday I hit the road for a long run along the Werribee River at 6:30am. What a perfect morning for a run. No wind, overcast with some sun, not hot, not cold. I did a 'cheats' long run ie alternated running for 9 min with walking for 1 min for the first 50 min of the jaunt. I then ran continuously for the remaining 44 mins. This seems to break up the run nicely. The run was very comfortable and I managed a little effort at the end. The heart rate was only about 132 at the end. Nice & low. All up I did about 16ks at about 5:55 pace. The actual running component would have been at about 5:45 pace. It was enjoyable and I've pulled up well. It's a relief to get a longer run completed.

Not quite enough

2008-01-29T16:01:00.000+11:00

Well I've run 112ks so far in Jan. That makes 12 consequtive months over 100ks.

I'd like to be averaging 150-160 per month for 2008, so I'll be a bit short for Jan. The main reason for the lack of ks is continuing failure to get out and do runs in the 70-120 min range (ie long runs). A couple of years ago I did some long runs on Monday nights, but I don't feel like doing that at the moment. That leaves early starts on the weekend as pretty much the only option, but sleeping in has been taking precedence.

My cruising speed seems to be increasing without even trying on the typical 35-50 mins runs that I've been doing.

With these modest ks I seem to be slowly losing weight. I'm down to about 78kg at the mo. I've got no problem with the thought dropping to low 70s, but I'm sure my wife wont be happy! If I do get to the low 70s I guess I will have to dabble with increasing kjs. I already eat snacks after dinner, I might have to find a meal between breakfast and brunch!

There's plenty of runs in the coolrunning calendar that interest me. The Geelong HM is on the same day as RunForTheKids. IF I get some long runs going, I'd prefer to do Geelong over volunteering at R4tK.

There's also a local 8k race along The Werribee river on Mar 15. The route is along a section that I've done many times, so I'd like to do this one.

My Dad is now out of hosp & in a rehab facility. His short term memory is still poor. Other than that he's mentally fine & seems in good spirits. Physically though, he still has only a bit of movement and feeling in his left side. Independent living looks unlikely....

Keep on running!

Yep, still going

2008-01-11T15:20:00.000+11:00

December '07 summary:

runs: 18
ks: 146 approx
time: 13h 10min
av pace: 5:25 min/k
injuries: nil!
mass: 78.5kg
resting hr: 49

2007 ks: 1,633

Jan '08 so far:
Slow start. Only 4 runs to date - 27ks in total.

My last 11 runs have been along the Werribee river. Getting a bit bored with it. Still haven't done a long run since Oct.

I haven't been riding my bike or doing any other cross training, which is just wrong.

Dad had a major stroke on new years day. Waiting to see if he'll become well enough for surgery on his majorly blocked corotiod artery. Plenty of trips to Box Hill hosp. I like my dad, he's such a sweetie. Hasn't become cynical or miserable and has remained open minded, switched on, agnostic, fiercely independent, non-mainstream, non materialistic and left leaning. Pretty much how I am and want to remain (except I'm less switched on, athiest and would like to be drinking a lot less chardonay if I get to his age). Hope his prospects improve, or he dies peacefully.

To Steve: I keep expecting you to pass me every time I run in Werribee but haven't seen you for ages. While I was on leave I was running around midday. Last few runs have been at about 8:30pm. I'm usually wearing my CR cap when running in Werribee. Haven't seen you or too many other runners, just the usual: nervy walkers 3-4 abreast (I usually scare the crap outa them when I pass), eratic dogs on elastic leads, eratic dogs off lead, etc.

Running free

2007-12-18T09:36:00.000+11:00

In my running spreadsheet I have a comments column where I record any knee niggles or other niggles that I'm feeling. I've had no niggles since 11 November - 20 good runs in that time!

I'm roatating 3 pairs of shoes at the moment. All different brands & different levels of support and I'm happy with them all.

It all seems to be working for me at the moment. The only thing I'm lacking is a long run in my schedule at the moment. I haven't done anything over 70 mins since the Melb HM (early Oct). Most of my runs of late have been in the 45-55 min range at 5.25-5.75 min/k pace. I'm a creature of habit. It shouldn't be too hard to start building up a long run next month.

I've done 89k so far in December. I'll run today and do a few more before the end of the year. I might be a few ks short of my 1,666 kms in 2007 goal. Overall very pleased with my runnnig this year, certainly much better than last year.

As for goals next year I want to remain injury free and train consistently. All going well I'd like to do the Geelong & Melb HMs, the Coburg Bluestine classic (tough 15k'er) and a few 8-10k events put on by Coburg Aths or Sri Chinmoy. Rather than running in Run for the kids, I'm thinking of volunteering. If all goes well I should do about 1,800 ks.

November stats

2007-12-06T08:29:00.000+11:00

Time on feet: 10:49
Av pace (approx): 5:33 min/km
Approx ks: 116.7
Weight at 30/11: 78.5 kg
Resting HR: 48 bpm

Pretty light month. I did 51ks in the week ending 05/12 so I'm trending up. The knees, and body in general have felt good on the last few runs. Still coming to terms with the heat.

I've decided against doing the 10k Sri Chinmoy @ Willie. Why?
1. Couldn't be arsed.
2. Too tight.
3. Worried about injury (hard surface + running hard = perceived risk).
4. It could be hot or windy.
5. There's a fair chance that I wouldn't get under 45 min.

---------

I've always known that I'm introverted. I'm just now realising that I'm more of an introverted introvert (ie possibly a schizoid type), which, of course, I'm 'good' with.

Inconsistent week

2007-11-09T14:20:00.000+11:00

Last Fri I ran out of energy 4k into a run. Had the floppy legs, faint head, the works. Had to walk for 5min before shuffling back. Dunno what was going on there.

Ran agint on Tue (33min), Wed (46 min) and today (Fri 63 min).

Today's run included a clockwise lap of The Tan. I've developed a bit of a hill phobia after the William Barack bridge pwned me near the end of the Melb HM. Well it was time for a confrontation today. I got up Anderson St today without too much trouble. I'll get my revenge on the WB bridge soon enough.

Hopefully today's run will be the start of some consistent 50k weeks.

Good news: The Federation Trail bike track has been resurfaced. This along with the beautiful weather means that cycling to work is a possibility. I really must do so one day next week.

I've got quite a bit on next week. Physically I'll be fine, emotionally we'll see. 4-5 runs might be a good idea.

Fields of dreams

2007-11-02T09:17:00.000+11:00

Oct ‘07 stats:

Time on feet: 11hr 29 min
Nbr of runs: 15
Av pace: approx 5:20 min/k
Approx k’s: 129
31/10 Weight: 79kg
31/10 resting HR: 50

Melb half marathon completed on Oct 7. Time 1:56:12. I’ve learned that tapering for, and recovering from a HM can put a dent in your monthly ks. Having a cold and being temporarily bummed out during the month doesn’t help either.

Well and truly back into running again after being a bit down after the HM. The HM seems like ages ago now.

I’ve done a couple of runs in the new Nikes. I’d say they are the most heavy duty stability shoe I have ever worn. They feel very high and firm on the medial side. I’ve had some niggly pain behind the kneecaps, so apparently my legs are still getting acquainted with them.

Last night I set off just after 8pm intending to rack up at least 60 min on feet. There was a bit of drizzle about which was cool. I ran to Presidents Park, Werribee mostly on the rough grass. At this park there are two baseball fields that were flood lit last night. Baseball (or was it softball) training was just winding up so I popped over and did about 6 laps of the field. The lighting was good and the surface was smooth, even grass (very lovely). Just as it was time to head home the floodlights went off. Nice timing. By the time I got home I had another 62 mins on feet accrued.

It was good to discover the baseball fields. They’re another running option to keep the variety up.

I’ve got the Sri Chinmoy 10k at Williamstown on 09 Dec pencilled in as my next race. I’ll be going for sub 45min.

Yarra run

2007-10-23T13:53:00.000+10:00

Just back from a nice run along the North side of the Yarra. On the way out I was mulling over when to turn around. I decided on 26:10 on the stopwatch (my estimate of 5k).

Usually I try not to look at my watch at the turn around point of an out & back run, as this typically results in me busting a gut trying to do a big negative split. Today was an exception. I turned around between Punt Rd & Chapel St at 26:08 and I got back with 50:22 on the clock. Nice -ve split. Thank you goes to the bloke I spotted 70m ahead of me on the way back. I reeled him in very, very slowly over about 3ks. Good fun. Finished with a kick over the last 150m (chasing another runner, this one was way too fast for me). Heart rate was about 160 at the end. Overall pace: about 5:02.

Went to active feet yesterday and tried about 5 pairs (various brands) using the treadmill. The podiatrist pointed out my over pronating on the screen, particularly on my left side. In the end we decided on a pair of Nike's. I tested size 12 but we decided that I need 13s, which they didn't have in stock. Can't remember the model* (?supernova maybe). Anyway the're 'only' $180 - $25, so they mustn't be the top of the range Nike's. It's nice that they recommend based on what works best for you, not price/margin. They've transferred a pair of 13s from the other store so I'm picking them up tomorrow. So, new shoes soon. Never had Nike's before. Exciting.

*Edit: The model of the new Nikes is 'structure triax10+' It makes them sound very important, doesn't it.

Back into it

2007-10-22T09:34:00.000+10:00

Wed 17 Oct: 43 min running
Sat 20 Oct 41 min
Sun 21 Oct 41 min.

Was hoping to do 70 min on Sunday but slept in. I forgot to have a drink before starting too and 10 mins in I had a yucky dry mouth. The sudden warm/hot weather didn't help either.

Overall I'm really enjoying the running again. Basically no soreness certainly helps.

I probably do too many runs in the 42-52 min range (ie 'grey' 8-9k'ers). It's just that that's the sort of time frame that I can manage and it's also what I enjoy most. I might benefit from some short sharp stuff about now but I'm too lazy for that.

I intend to keep 80+ min runs going on a fortnightly-ish basis, that way I wont lose too much endurance for likely 2008 HMs.

Shoe update:
I've got 2 pairs on the go currently. One pair's done 600k and the other 400k. I'm going to Active Feet (shoe store) this week as they do treadmill evaluations of your running style. Provided I'm happy with the advice I get (their reputation is very good) I'll buy some shoes from them (using the $25.00 discount voucher that was in the MM goody bag). The pair of shoes I get after that will be the closest Loco equivalent to what active feet recommend.

2007-10-19T15:28:00.001+10:00

In the shadows of the half marathon finish line at the MCG.

Up and about again

2007-10-17T10:40:00.001+10:00

DOMS cleared up by Wed 10/12.
First run post HM was Fri 12/10/2007 Duration: 34:39. Enthusiasm: low

Then:
Sat 13/10/2007 along Werribee river. Duration: 0:34:05
Sun 14/10 bit of a sore back from work in the garden.
Mon 15/10/2007 along Yarra to Morell Bridge. Duration 45:27 (first warm day of the season made it tough)
Tue 16/10/2007 along Yarra to Morell Bridge. Duration 43:30. Mind & body feeling good (lower R back stiffness nearly all gone)

Pace: easy at all times.

It seems quite a few of the coolrunners who did the HM are now inspired to aim for the full next year. I’m not one of them……

There’s two Sri Chinmoy 10k’ers coming up: 11 Nov at Geelong & 9 Dec at Williamstown. Hmmmm which one?

I’ll be 42 by the time these are run, but I surely wont be able to get my 10k time below my age just yet. Maybe a 2-year goal.

I feel like I’m just about in the best running shape I’ve ever been in (ie in theory should be able to better my 45:07 10k pb). That was set in my one & only 10k race, the 2005 defence lake attack at Albert Park lake. It was twice around the lake plus a short detour to make each lap 5k. In retrospect I have a feeling that the course may have been a bit short that day, as 45:07 now seems a bit quick considering the lifetime ks I had done to that point and the extremely windy conditions (it was hard to keep running at times). No point thinking about it, just train well.

The Soft Bulletin

2007-10-08T11:10:00.000+10:00

I picked up an energy sapping cold last Tuesday. By Saturday my energy level felt normal again but I still had the sore throat & cough.

On Sat night I slept well until I got restless at about 4am. Got up at 5:40 and had a coffee, 400ml water, couple of weetbix & 1 slice of jam toast.

I didn’t want to run the risk of missing a car park at the ‘G, so on Saturday I put my bike in the car, and early on Sunday morning I drove to Docklands and parked the car near Jeff’s shed, assembled the bike and rode to the ‘G. It was a nice easy ride to the ‘G. Soon after I took my bike helmet off, revealing my CR cap, I got my first greeting from a fellow CR. It was Rohan, who went on to run a sub 3hr marathon! I dropped off my bag and walked up to the start area, arriving just after 7:30. Cutting things pretty fine for a scheduled 7:45 start, but I was calm.

I was positioned in the back half of the throng. The announcer said the pacers were towards the front, but I couldn’t see their flags. As I was still feeling the effects of the cold, starting independently and well back from the pacers didn’t worry me. I’m sure the lack of visibility of the pacers would have been a great concern for some runners.

The starting hooter went off just after 8:00 & it took me nearly 4 mins to cross the start line. My intent for the first few k was to allow the congestion to hold my pace back. This is pretty much what happened, though I was gradually making my way through the pack. My other intention for the early part was to drink at all drink stations in the first 10k.

The first k marker I saw was 5k & my elapsed time was 25:xx. Around here was the first drink station. I got one water satchel (wish I’d got 2-3). I squeezed the satchel causing it to explode on my face. Refreshing but unfortunately not hydrating. I realised that next time I should tear the satchel open with my teeth. Missing that drink & not knowing when the next will be (I didn’t memorise the locations) was playing on my mind.

Along here somewhere I caught up to the 2:00hr pacer. I stayed with them for a bit and then passed.

CR Grey Beard said hello on the way past at Albert Park lake. At the 10k marker my elapsed time was 51:2x. The second drink station (that I saw) was near here. This time I got 1 water & 1 sports drink. I walked as I drank and got most of the satchels into me.

Along Beaconsfield Pde at 11-12k negative thoughts started (eg this is uncomfortable, I’m not enjoying this, I wish I was at 20k). I asked myself ‘what’s the freaking problem, legs or lungs?’ but I don’t remember getting a clear answer! I think I caught up to the 1:50 pace group around here but I’m not certain, definitely getting vague.

My pace to the 13k point suggested a 1:48-1:50 time was possible, but the negativity was getting louder. I took in 2 more sports drink satchels around here (walking as I drank). I was hoping these would give me the big pick-up that I needed, but they tasted sickly sweet. I was pretty close to throwing up for a while. Suddenly I realised it was my calves that were the main problem. They weren’t cramping, but they were tight tight tight. It felt like my lower legs were wooden stumps. Involuntarily, my pace fell away. The wave of runners started passing me, whereas previously I was generally working through the field. I looked down at my legs and tried to evaluate my form. My toes were still pointing forward and my feet & knees seemed pretty much aligned. I don’t think my turnover had reduced much, so it must have been my stride length (in short, I was in survival shuffle mode).

I succumbed to my mind’s third demand to walk. I walked for about 45 secs and resumed the shuffle. Soon after I took another walk and stopped to stretch the calves on the St Kilda Rd gutter. I felt pretty sheepish about my performance at this point. No-one else seemed to be having any troubles. I was so impressed with the huge numbers of obviously well trained runners (especially the females, they seemed to be in the majority here).

Finally we got of StKilda Rd & onto a short downhill at Birrarung Marr. Now I was on a route that I’ve run plenty of times in training. On the downhill I felt better and told myself to really try to run up William Barak bridge. It wasn’t to be. Yet another walk up part of the bridge.

Now I was running around the outside of the MCG, still being passed by everyone. Things started to fade to grey a bit. My level of consciousness was not optimal! I took the opportunity to look at myself in a glass reflection – up & down pretty much in one spot! Got inside the ‘G & had a bit of a look around before looking down and admiring the turf. Despite being in the great ground I was really keen to take another walk. Only when there were less than 100m to go I realised I could make it without walking. I saw 1:59:50 in the clock. Couldn’t catch the 2hrs. Crossed the line in a gun time of 2:00:02. Net time of 1:56:12.

My predominant feeling is disappointment at the way the last 7k went. The cold was a factor but I don’t know how much. Other thoughts are lack of long runs in the 21-25 k range and lack of long runs on hard surfaces (my long runs were 70% on grass or tartan).

I didn’t hang around at the MCG. I rode to Fed Square. I stayed there until 11:30am cheering in the coolrunners. The aforementioned Rohan was the first CR marathoner I saw. I was hoping to mingle with some runners at Transport bar at Fed square but at 11:30 noone had arrived yet & it was time for me to head home so my son could try out little athletics.

I’ve had a good sleep and the legs feel OK. I have DOMS in the muscles near my hips. The bloody troublesome calves feel fine though! It’s less than 12 months since the medial meniscus in my R knee was trimmed. Both knees were great on the day.

May have to change plans a bit

2007-10-05T08:40:00.000+10:00

I've got a cold. Its in the throat and sinuses, plus I feel a bit woosey. Yes, I'll be resting and hydrating like crazy today & tomorrow.

If it doesn't get any worse, I'll still participate on Sunday, but I might have to forget about the 1:50 bus and just start near the back of the pack and play it be ear.

7Ps

2007-10-01T08:40:00.000+10:00

Well 'they' say poor planning & preparation perpetuates piss poor performance. My preparation for the Melb half marathon has been as good as I could reasonably hope for, ALL things considered.

Sept stats:
Nbr of Runs: 17
Time on feet: 17:55 (biggest ever month)
Approx ks: 187 (2nd biggest ever month)
Av pace: 5:45 min/km (est.)
Cross training: nil
Injuries: nil (knees good!)
Weight: 79kg
Waist: 88cm

Notables:
Completed longest ever run on 09 Sept: 2:06:45 on feet.

Since last post I've done what I said I'd do. My last longish run was early last Sat: 75 mins on a mixture of concrete & grass. Felt fit running. At midday on Sat I had a 45 min sports massage. She said I was pretty tight & she certainly tried to loosen the calves & hammies up.

Luckily I'm still avoiding the cold/flu/fever bullet that everyone else at home has got. I'm very sleepy though (eg asleep on the couch at 8:30 Sat night). Active rest for the next few days should do the trick.

I'll probably have trouble sleeping on Sat night, so early nights in the lead up will be in order.

Diet:
I don't think about my diet too much. I generally think its reasonable and moderate. This week I'll make a effort to eat more fresh fruit & veg, cut back on the coffees and sip water all day long. On about Thu i'll start having a bit of diluted poweraide (normally I don't worry about sports drinks).

----

My son's current fixation is geography. He decided a few weeks ago that what he NEEDS is a CD of songs and stories about countries, capitals, contenents, etc. We haven't been able to find anything in shops here, much to his frustration, so we looked online & found a CD with book included that looks suitable. He has seen the cover & heard some samples of the tracks. He is sooooo excited that we just had to order it. It's going to cost $41.00. Lucky the dollar is strong at the moment! Of course week need to get a special treat for out little girl as well!

----

Well done to the Cats & the Storm. I used to be a Fitzroy boy, now I don't go for one team but Geelong are amongst the teams that I like to see do well. I watched most of the ARL GF even though I don't know much about it. The Storm seems to be a very well drilled group. Those boys are damn tough and couragous.

Maintenance mode

2007-09-25T09:55:00.000+10:00

Back from our 3 night stay at Lorne. We had a lovely time. The kids braved it out with colds and high temperatures. Hopefully a few very quiet days at home will help (its now school & activity group holidays), though this wont do much for Lisa’s sanity.

I haven’t caught this latest cold, and that chesty cough seems to be finally clearing up.

As for running, I did my final long run before the Melb half marathon last Wed 19 Sept. I drove to The Tan nice and early and started running at 6:00am. I did a bit over 5 laps (clockwise). 1 lap is 3.827km. I did each lap in pretty even splits of 22:xx. All up it was 1:52:03 running at 5:47min/km pace (about 19.4km).

At that pace you have to check your ego at the door as you get passed by runners throughout.

At one stage during the run I thought about taking up to 2 hours, but I was just too buggered to do it. Having multiple hills in a long run is a new concept to me and it certainly makes a difference! Anyway 19.4k is a good distance lr for a half marathon first timer.

The good news is I pulled up very well from the lr. I took a rest day on Thu even though I felt OK. I didn’t get a chance to run again until Sunday 23rd when I did a sharpish 33min run at about 5:10 pace along the lovely foreshore at Lorne.

I suppose it’s not ideal to be having consecutive non-running days at a time just before a planned taper, but I’m just happy to be feeling 95% niggle-free.

Plan leading up to Oct 7:
In the next 7 days do 4-5 runs, including 1-2 up to 60 min, then a couple of 20-30 mins runs in the remaining days.

The plantar wart on the ball of my left foot gets annoying on long runs. I’ll experiment with those donut shaped corn protectors and might wear one on Oct 7. I’m still mulling over shoe options for the big day too. I wont bore with details.

One thing I must also do is make sure the bike (with wheels taken off) fits in the car so I can ride from Port Melb to the ‘G.

Good luck to all who are running.

A 5 hill run & nothing on the weekend

2007-09-18T09:27:00.000+10:00

Last Fri I did a run that took in 5 'hills'. They were the Collins St rise over Wirundjeri (sp) Way x 2, W Barack bridge, Anderson St hill on the tan and the boardwalk ramp at Birrarung Marr. All up about 58 mins on feet. At the easy pace I was running I noticed how my breathing quickly returned to normal after getting up these rises.

Still coughing and purring a bit with the chesty thing. Probably should have been on penicillin weeks ago, but I need at least 3 concurrent issues before I’ll go to a doc.

On Sat I had my usual active rest day (ie domestic and gardening duties). Sunday’s LR didn’t happen. The weather was crazy windy. It could of course be like that on Oct 7, if it is I’ll accept it.

Yesterday was a 65 min v slow run with work colleague. The turn around point was Westgate Park. Mental note: There’s a toilet block & drinking tap there (important info for me).

Up coming days:
About 50 min today with a surge in the second half.
I’ve decided to do one more 120-130 min run before Oct 7. I’m probably going to do it at the tan starting at about 6am either tomorrow or Thu.
One Fri we’re off for a 3 night stay at Lorne. Probably 1 or 2 50 min runs down there.

Been thinking about logistics on 7 Oct. I’ll probably pack the bike in the car and park at Port Melb then ride the 4k to the MCG. This will serve as a bit of a warm up.

William Barack bridge

2007-09-12T10:06:00.000+10:00

There’s been a bit of discussion on CR about the William Barack bridge (a climb towards the end of the Melb marathon & half marathon). Despite regularly running along the Yarra I was not sure where this bridge exactly is.

On an online street directory it shows it spanning from the Federation Bells at Birrarung Marr to the MCG parkland. I’ve run past the Federation Bells plenty of times but never noticed the William Barack bridge (strange)!

The rain at lunchtime yesterday did not dampen my curiosity to find and conquer* the WB Bridge.

I ran up the boardwalk ramp that leads to the Federation Bells, looked to the right and there it was – the WB bridge! At this point I also discovered you can access the WB bridge via the back of the small Ferris wheel at Birrarung Marr. I realised that the M/HM will take this route on Oct 7 (ie not up the boardwalk ramp). It was good to get all that sorted out.

The upward rise is a bit sneaky as it’s seems to be longer than it looks from the bottom. It’s by no means a tough hill, but I’m sure I’ll be noticing it after about 19ks on Oct 7 (my first HM). On the day I’ll just try to maintain what ever pace I’m doing.

I heard some strange sounds (yelling, chanting, etc) as I was running the bridge. I thought maybe a protest or something was happening on the ground below the bridge but soon realised the bridge has speakers. I assume it was a representation of some of the sounds of an indigenous tribe gathering from long ago. Something to look forward to on race day.

Since I was now at the MCG I decide to do a lap around the outside. Noticed people prepping for the Aus v Arg soccer match. When I got back to the Yarra via the WB bridge I decided to run out to Morell bridge (Anderson St) & back to Docklands. A 59:51 run in mild drizzly conditions.

The legs are not yet fully over Sunday’s LR but getting there. When running, my chest is still occasionally purring from the persistent congestion in there. Cough, cough ptwang!

*I knew concur was wrong and spent 3 mins working out how to spell this!

Longest run ever

2007-09-10T10:17:00.000+10:00

Melb half marathon entrant number: 7744.

The week ending yesterday (Sun) was my biggest ever:

Runs: 5
Time on feet: 5:54 (~ 60k)

Short:
My long run yesterday went for 2:06:45 (~21.5k). That’s my first time over the 2 hour mark. Heart rate at the end was about 160 (I did put in an effort in the last 1,500m). I was in bed by 8:45pm last night but still pretty buggered today. I guess that’s to be expected. Even though I’ve been running for a while, I’m still a novice at 100+min runs.

Detail:
For the last couple of weeks I’ve had that productive cough that’s going around Melb. On top of that my legs were feeling tired on Sat after having a pretty solid week’s running (for me). By Sat night I decided that I’ll just set off for the run in the morning, listen to the old bod and cut it short if necessary.

From past experience I know running the entire length of the Werribee River path would take me just short of 2 hours. From my place it’s a 5 min jog to the Northern end of the path. I completed this little section first and popped back home to do No. 2’s. After that little break I restarted the stop watch & headed South along the river path with the legs feeling OK.

As usual I ran as much as possible on the grass/dirt (all up about 60-70% on soft surface). It was an uneventful trip all the way to the freeway where I took a drink & tacked on a bit extra along the Federation trail. I turned around after about 5 mins on the Fed trail, took another drink as I passed the tap & headed home. I started to get weary after 95 mins of running and tried to keep my form and co-ordination in order. With about 3k to go the phlegm in my chest started restricting my breathing a bit. I kept running while coughing & spluttering. It was quite a weird experience.

I upped the pace a bit in the last 1,500m & finished pleased with 2:06:45 on the clock.

I feel & sound hungover today. I’ve been drinking plenty of water. Even though I sound dry, my wee wees are clear. I wont worry about a recovery run today. Might do some trampoline jogging tonight. I’lll have a lighter week this week & do a ~100min run next weekend. I really need to get rid of this cough.

Thoughts:
Distance is estimated but I’m sure I did more than 21.1, so it’s good to have the HM distance covered. You know, 21.1 really is a long way to run. People who train for and complete marathons are awesome/freaks (no offence, of course)! I can’t see myself ever trying to run over 30k. I reckon if I ever hit the wall I would never get up.

Melb half mar - paid up

2007-09-04T10:00:00.000+10:00

I got my entry in for the Melb half marathon (Sun 07 Oct).

Recent runs:
Thu 30 Aug - 40mins @ ~5:45 pace
Fri 31 Aug - 50mins @~5:35
Sun 2 Sep - 88mins @~5:45
Mon 3 Sep - 69mins @~6:40 recovery run with work colleague (beginner)

Also a bit of on the spot jogging on a mini trampoline. Your legs feel really funny when you walk on firm ground after 15 mins of this!

Aug stats:
Number of runs:15
Time running: 10 hrs:28 mins running (approx 111ks)
Aug included 2x5days breaks due to non-running related back pain & other niggles/grizzles.

With my first ever HM in early Oct, ideally I would have been running for close to 20 hours in Aug. Such is life. Not too concerned. I feel well positioned to do plenty in the next 18 days, including a ~130min long run.

HM
I've added my name to the list of coolrunning half marathon entrants. It's probably not wise to specify a goal time for a debut HM (especially when I don't have a recent 10k time to extrapolate), but I've done just that: 1:50.

My definition of a perfect LR

2007-08-27T10:37:00.000+10:00

I did 42 min runs last Wed & Fri. On Sat a did a solid day’s work in the garden.

I want the do the Melb HM on 7 Oct but I’ve only done three 90+ min runs in the last few months. I would like to do 2-3 more 100+ min runs in the time remaining, with one in the 120-130 min range. Yesterday (Sunday) was the day to get one of these in the bag. I had the alarm set for 06:15am but I woke up just before then & could hear light rain falling. The prosect of running in the rain didn’t bother me. I started just after 06:30am. Enough light to run mostly on the grassy fringe next to the Werribee River bike path.

Started off at an appropriate LR pace for me (about 6 – 6:15 pace) & my knees & back were feeling fine. Also, just as I was starting out I heard our resident Kookaburras calling. One was close by & the other off in the distance. I love that sound.

Conditions were great for running – no wind, temp perfect, occasional light drizzle. I crossed Cottrell St and ran through Wyndham Park. Everything was good so I decided to keep going right down to the drinking tap near the freeway at the start of the Federation trail. I arrived there after 53:30 running. Took a good drink & started the journey back. Exchanged good mornings to a few friendly walkers and cyclists.

With about 3k to go I saw a runner ahead. I upped the pace to probably about 5:15 but he was still going a bit faster than me. I took a short cut heading to Riverbend Park & got just ahead of him. By this point I was probably close to 5:00 pace & he soon passed me, saying good morning. He was a bald bloke wearing an ‘ultra distance triathlon’ T-shirt. I’ve never heard of an ultra distance tri. Got me thinking maybe it’s something longer than an Ironman. If it is, yikes! Over the final 1,500m I was going pretty hard, trying to not let him get further away. It was a nice quick finish to a LR. The return leg only took 50:30 (though it was slightly shorter). All up very happy with 104 mins on feet. Perfect LR for me.

I sprayed some cold water on my legs in the shower & they’ve pulled up well. Rest day today (blood plasma donation). Hopefully a couple of runs during the week & another LR on Father’s Day.

--

Hi Em,

Thanks very much for your insight (certainly not too forward). I’m a dedicated reader of your blog & I thought I recalled you mentioning your Aspie brother before. It’s great to hear about him doing so well. I like reading/hearing about experiences from Aspies & their families. There’s some good forums such as wrongplanet.net (great name) and aspect.org.au that I’ve found. I also bought Tony Attwood’s latest book the other day.

He shows many of the documented quirks, so we’re having plenty of ‘Ah Ha’ moments at home. I’m having a bit of trouble coming to terms with some of the less desirable (to me) quirks such as when he’s into a long monologue about the duration of songs on various CDs. The thing that troubles me most about it is he doesn’t seem to get any great enjoyment out of it. It’s like he HAS to do it rather than WANTS to. I’ve still got lots to learn. He’s keen on running so he’ll be giving little aths a go soon!

Back into it

2007-08-21T13:48:00.000+10:00

I did a 15 min test run last Saturday despite the back being a bit sore & the L quad being pretty tight. I passed the test well (felt good & comfy running). Encouraged by that success I did a 40 min run on Sunday (~5:30 pace) and a 41 min run today (~5:20 pace).

I dug 45 holes & planted 45 plants in our back yard on Sunday & the back has pulled up OK so I'm declaring the back problem behind me. Happy with that as the weather's looking great for running this week. Now I need to get some long runs (starting at 14k building to 21 k) under the belt before the end of Sept.

----

Re my 6 yo son, a clinical psychologist who's regarded as a diagnostic expert has officially diagnosed him with Aspergers Syndrome . Next step is a management plan. Luckily for us he's a beautifully natured boy & his behaviour is very very good 99% of the time.

Back on the sidelines

2007-08-16T10:27:00.000+10:00

No running since Fri due to left lower back injury.

I was all geed up to do the 12k fun run at Coburg last Sunday, but unfortunately on Saturday afternoon something went all wrong in my lower back when I tried to pick up a 20kg box. I had my knees bent in preparation but the mistake I made was keeping the knees bent when doing the lift (ie I used my back to lift it). Yarhhhh. Sharp pain in left lower back & the feeling that bits separated and briefly moved into an area that they had no business being in. Stiffness came on immediately. I was very uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

I had some much milder back pain a few months ago that I was able to run through, so I did a short test on Sunday. It was no good - jarring in the back. It's improved quite a bit since but still not 100%.

Started taking voltaren 24 hrs ago which surprisingly doesn't seem to be getting rid of the remaining pain. Will take the voltarens for a couple more days and might see my osteopath early next week.

My L quad is also very tight. Probably back-related.

Wont run while I'm on the voltarens. I've been walking 90 mins per day & doing some core strengthening moves. It's turning into a very stop start lead up to the Melb Half.

Re-loaded

2007-08-10T08:42:00.000+10:00

Back in the swing after that hiatus.

Mon: 61 min with work colleague. Different route for a change - Lorimer St from Docklands to the shadows of the Westgate Bridge & return. Good route because there are pristine grassy nature strips nearly all the way.

Work colleague hasn't been running for long but has already lost a fair bit of the weight that will do him good to lose. Easy pace (about 6min/k). It was his longest ever run - felt good to have played my part & have a chat. He was really struggling at about the 45 min mark but surged home very well in the last 10 mins. Gutsy effort. I noticed how untaxed my legs felt afterwards. Easy pace really makes a difference. I'll be happy to do this most Mondays. Recovery run for me. Long run for him.

Tue: 41 min @ ~ 5min/k along Yarra.

Thu: Early morning 55 mins @ ~5:30min/k

Fri: Plan to run later today.

Weekend: Either a long run early Sun am or get to Coburg by 8:30am for a 12k race!

There's heaps of races coming up between now & Nov in the 10-21.1k range that interest me.

A week off

2007-08-06T09:53:00.000+10:00

A week off.

150ks for the month of July.

Didn’t run at all last week. Resumed yesterday with an easy paced 60 min run.

A few reasons (or more accurately excuses) why I didn’t run:

Being a bit emotionally consumed by our son’s possible Aspergers Syndrome/Autism Sprectrum diagnosis,
Allowing time for some numbness in my L foot during recent runs to settle,
Generally feeling pretty drained/buggered/down,
Plenty of nasty windy weather (bottom of barrel scraping here).

During the week off I was mostly feeling down and even had negative thoughts about keeping the running going. I also ate poorly & too much (eg snacking after dinner). You’d think I’d be jumping out of my skin for a run after a week off but when the opportunity to run came up yesterday I almost passed it up.

I did ‘number 2s’ & off I set, heading to the Presidents Park toilet block about 21 mins away. The reason for heading there was the fact that I’d consumed copious amounts of chocolates, porridge, peanut butter sandwiches, wine and a scotch egg in the previous 24 hours. I just knew that I’d need to ‘go’ again. And I wasn’t wrong. My feet we a bit crampy prior to the pit stop but felt better after. I did a lap of the big park & headed home. An hour at easy pace. Knees didn’t feel too crash hot afterwards.

I’ve got a plantar wart on the ball of my L foot (this just confirms that my feet are a disaster area). It’s getting increasingly uncomfortable and may be affecting my running gait & contributing to the cramping. Dr Google says that sometimes plantar warts spontaneously disappear & this is what I’ve been hoping for. I may have to re-think this!

----

I went along to my son’s psychologist appt last week. She is qualified to diagnose Aspergers, but in this case, because it’s so marginal she’s referred him to another psychologist who specialises in very marginal cases. That assessment is coming up on Aug 20 & will go for 4+ hours. We haven’t told my son the reason for the assessments, we just try to make sure he is feeling positive & willing to participate. His school is already looking out for his needs & will continue to do so whether officially diagnosed or not.

2 more runs at the bottom of a learning curve

2007-07-30T12:12:00.000+10:00

A 10k run on Friday & a 7k run on Sunday.

My 6 yo son is one of the two most incredibly beautiful things in the universe. The other is my daughter. He recently had school-initiated assessments by a speech pathologist & psychologist. Last week we met with them and some school representatives to discuss the results. It seems the psychologist thinks he may well have Aspergers Syndrome. A further assessment by a paediatrician was recommended, and this will be taking place next week (after much pleading we got an appointment this soon).

In his end of year report, his kinder teacher wrote that he may be ‘gifted’ because his memory, concentration, attention to detail and precise speech amazed her (& she has 15 years experience as a kinder teacher).

My wife & I also have recognised these traits very well for a few years. We never seriously considered the possibility of AS as we haven’t seen the other consistently documented signs such as problems picking up on non-verbal communication and social conventions. He is also incredibly affectionate with mum & dad which I had thought was not part of the AS profile. I’ve now read that such affection with nearest & dearest in AS is not uncommon.

The psychologist’s report is based on interviews with the teacher & my wife, in class observations and testing (IQ & other). I was initially incredulous about the tentative AS diagnosis as I cannot agree with several of the clinical observations made in the report. However I am now starting to recognise and acknowledge certain other subtle traits that have always been there and so are coming around to their thinking.

Keeping an open mind & doing a lot of reading. Such a lovely, special boy.

Thrice round The Tan

2007-07-25T13:20:00.000+10:00

Tue 24th: 47:10 ~8.8ks
Along the Yarra at lunchtime in the Locos . Feet feeling better though I still get the feeling that my left sock is scrunching up where the toes meet the ball (I've checked, it's not). Just some nerve-related sensation.

Wed 25th starting @ 06:34am: Three Tan laps = 11.48km in 1:00:33
Direction: All clockwise (thought about mixing it up but didn't quite feel like turning around).

Some pace info (assuming Tan is measured accurately)
Splits:
Lap1 - 20:50
Lap 2 - 20:10
Lap 3 - 19:30
Overall pace 5:16 per km.

Been trying to get some company on the Wed morning run buy putting details up on coolrunning. A fortnight ago SimonS joined me. Hoping he or others might show up this morning, but by 6:34am no-one else showed & I was done with waiting in the coolness so off I went, solo. Plenty of other runners about to keep an eye on though. Always interesting watching humans run.

L foot a bit tingly post run. Rest day tomorrow. Will keep close tabs on foot. Dont want a Mortons Neuroma or stress fracture.

Numb foot

2007-07-23T14:47:00.000+10:00

Fri night long run:
92min 42sec running. All hard surface. After 40 mins of running I had mild cramps in my feet plus numbness and intermittent hot & cold sensations in my feet (particularly left foot). At one stage I stopped to check the lace tightness. It seemed OK. I was wearing my Asics 2110s. I’ve done about 200k in these without any issues. Thinking it might be something to do with the hard surface & upping the weekly ks at the same time. These foot grumbles made this run hard to enjoy.

Sun recovery run:
33 min slow run. Feet still crampy/uncomfortable

Mon:
48.5 min easy run with work colleague. Still getting sensations in my L foot & toes like there’s nerves getting pinched. I’ll wear my favoured Loco Expressos on my next run.

2 more

2007-07-19T15:22:00.000+10:00

Wed: Lunchtime (instead of morning) along Yarra out to Chapel St & back in the rain. 11ks in 57:22.

Thu: 6.4k in 30:20.

Should be a 50-55k week.

Monday lunchtime - Tan

2007-07-17T13:03:00.000+10:00

Mon: Set off from Docklands just after midday & ran to The Tan. Did a clockwise lap. For about 1,500m the pace was pretty quick (eg about 4:40/km) as I passed someone who had earlier passed me & I could hear him on my tale! I wasn't prepared to all-out race but was happy for this portion of up tempo running. We passed plenty of slower runners (training sensibly) & I kept him at bay until the start finish marker.

Ran back to Docklands at a much slower pace. Time running 55:20. Dist ~10.3km.

Tue: DNS planned lunchtime run (cold, rain, wind, cold).

Wed: Will not do planned 6:30am Tan run with coolrunner SimonS (reason: as above).

I'll run again soon, hopefully when the temp is > 6.

Friday night longish run

2007-07-16T10:19:00.000+10:00

The cold/URTI mentioned in my last post has been & gone. Did 46ks last week, so back into it.

Did my long run on Friday night to free up the weekend as much as possible. Started running after reading a book to the kids in bed. Hit the road at 8:15pm. Cold, damp & dark! In addition to shorts & drifit T shirt I wore a black beanie.

Initially ran along the very dark concrete river path. The concrete reflects what little light there was just enough contrast the grass, so I could make out the path. No hope of seeing debris like glass or concrete coloured rocks though. Luckily no probs. Ran down the main street of Werribee and glanced at the diners at the cafes as I went past. Cafes busy but the footpath was quiet (just some smokers who probably thought I was crazy to be out running, but who’s the bigger fool?).

Used the bridge near Wyndham Park to cross over, ran along Cottrell St & started heading home. Added on a section at the end as I had 100 mins in mind. Got home at 98 mins. Didn’t worry about the extra 2 mins as I was feeling pretty cold by that stage & both knees had just about had enough of the hard surfaces. Longest run since Feb 06. Dist: about 16.7 kms.

Pulled up OK & did a 26 min recovery run on Sunday morning.

Checked the Melb Marathon site. The Half Marathon is still open for entries!

Cold #2 coming on

2007-06-29T11:31:00.000+10:00

I’ve had that feeling in my throat for the last few days letting me know that my second cold for the season is coming on.

I did 5 runs totalling 47ks for the week. On Mon & Tues I did runs at The Tan starting at 6:30am. When at The Tan, the presence of runners ahead or approaching from behind lifts my pace to 5:10 – 5:15 min/km. For aerobic base building I probably should keep it closer to 5:30 at the moment.

I’m trying (via coolrunning) to get a group run established at The Tan on Tuesday’s at 6:30am for a 5:30 pace run. On the last two Tuesdays no-one else has turned up. Ah well, will try again this Tuesday.

Odd behaviour seen at The Tan
While I was running up Anderson St a group of people approached me running down Anderson St wearing boxing gloves! Hope they were part of a boxercise class.

People with dogs on 3m leashes walking around The Tan before sunrise with heaps of runners about = accident/abuse waiting to happen.

I headed out last night for an overdue longish run. Nice conditions (chilly but no wind). I ran as much as possible on nature strips along the fairly well lit major roads of Werribee, so I was on soft surface for 70% of the run. 87 mins of running at v easy pace ~ 15ks. Highlight: When running next to the river I saw what I thought was a rabbit running across the ground.....until it started expertly climbing a tree. Don't think rabbits can do that, must've been a possum!

Throat feels worse after the run so a light couple of days may be ahead.

Targeting 95 min for next longer run & 100+ after that.

Shoe feelings
Suddenly I'm loving my Loco Expressos. I've had these since pre knee surgery, have done 350ks in them and have felt a bit suspicious of them at times. Of late they just feel great. It's hard not to go for them when choosing shoes for a run (currently I have these, + Asics 2100s & 2110s in circulation).

Listening to:
Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet (very, very good)
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible (Just got it. Made the mistake of having expectations. Need to keep listening with an open mind)
Rush – Snakes & Arrows (of course).

Laugh Kookaburra Laugh

2007-06-22T10:07:00.000+10:00

I’ve pulled up well from the Coburg Bluestone and have done early morning runs at The Tan on Tue (5.5k in 32:00), Wed (9.5k in 50:45) & Fri (9.3k in 48:34) this week.

Logistically this has worked quite well: Up at 5:40am, toilet, brush teeth, take glucosamine tabs, put on laid-out running gear, grab back pack containing work clothes, towel, water bottle, etc & start driving by 5:50am. Only takes about 35 mins to get to The Tan at this hour. Drink some water during the drive. Plenty of free parking available at The Tan (meters don’t start until 7:30am). Ready to run by 6:25am.

Trouble is, I'm going to bed earlier & have been asleep by the time Lisa gets in. Not very romantic & will not be tolerated I'm sure.

I started this morning’s run at the 250m marker & ran clockwise. I did 2 laps & kept going in order to ascend Anderson St for a 3rd time. At the top I turned around & made my way back to the 250m marker where I did some stretching. At this time I heard the sound of a Kookaburra laughing above the traffic noise! Very nice to know there’s at least one Kookaburra in the city (I didn’t hear a response from another one).

Next Tue at 6:30am I’m hoping to meet some other coolrunners for the first of what may become a regular group run at The Tan.

Official results for the Coburg 15k Bluestone Classic are in. There were 25 finishers & I came 15th. My official time was 81:37. Winner’s time was 64:07. First female was 72:28 & 10th place was 76:24.

Did the Coburg Bluestone Classic

2007-06-16T19:59:00.000+10:00

Perfect day for the run & I had an enjoyable time. There were about 60 starters, though some of those opted for the 7k course. There certainly were challenging bits in the cross country section. I finished the 15k course in 81:42.

Managed to keep running the whole time, though was extremely slow of the steep hills.

Happy with that. Now for some packing for the snow trip and off to bed as early as possible.

Thanks to the Coburg aths club for putting this on. I’ll be back to do some more of their events.

An update

2007-06-12T09:28:00.000+10:00

May 2007 stats:

Distance run ~164 km
Time on feet: 15h:15m
That would be an av. pace of ~5:35 per km

Happy with all of that.

I’m 95% recovered from a cold that’s lingered for the last 10 days which has caused me to miss a few runs. In fact, in the last 2 weeks I’ve only done 27 & 24 ks. I’m not too concerned about this as I was intending to have a light period anyway. My knees are feeling niggle-free so apparently they have appreciated the break.

Only trouble is, the 15k Coburg Bluestone Classic is suddenly coming up this weekend. A few factors are causing negative thoughts to creep in:

Judging by some comments from some seasoned coolrunners, this is genuinely a tough course, perhaps the toughest fun run on the Melb calendar! With my knee history I’m not keen on down hill running.

I’ve only done one run over the 15k race distance since my ‘comeback’, and that was a flat run.

Barring disasters I’m quite sure I can finish this run, but realistically I don’t have enough ks in the legs (and in particular hilly ks) to ‘race’ it. The sensible thing to do is treat it as a training run and not set any goal times.

I haven’t pre-registered & reserve the right to ‘DNS’ if the weather is crap, or whatever.

On Sunday we’re having a one night stay at Mt Buller to give the kids their first snow experience. I should have a blog update posted before we go.

I’d still like to do an upcoming 5 or 10 k race to see where I’m at pace-wise & have a crack at sub-45 in a 10k.

I haven’t registered for the Melb half marathon either. I’ll wait until about August. If I’m training well and if it’s not booked out by then, I may just commit!

Solid week

2007-05-28T10:36:00.000+10:00

Week ending Sun 27 May
Runs: 5
Time running: 4hrs 44mins
Ks covered: 50.4
Ave pace: 5:38 min/km

On Sat I got some muscle spasms & stiffness in my lower back which put me in danger of skipping the long run again. I took a couple of Heron on Sunday morning & decided to play it by ear. It turns out the jarring from running didn’t bother me at all.

The aim for yesterday’s long run was to accrue time on feet. I did 90 mins of running (est 15.5k) + about 6 mins of walking dispersed in there to look after the legs. This was my longest run since Feb 2006.

The route once again was along the Werribee River, this time all the way to the start of the Federation trail near the freeway. I took a welcome drink from a drinking fountain there that I’d never noticed it before (must have been installed when the Fed trail was built). Nice.

Once I turned around I realised that I was in for headwind for most of the return leg. I took a short walk break at about 52 mins & decided I’d run continuously from thereon. It was a bit of a slog at times. My rhythm never quite felt right and I wasn’t enjoying myself out there like I normally do.

The last 3 ks from Shaws Rd bridge to home were into a strong wind. I just focussed on keeping my form decent during this bit.

This run gives me confidence that I can finish the ‘Coburg Bluestone Classic’ 15k’er next month on 2 feet.

The week ahead:
Time for a lighter week. 30-35k total. Maybe a bike ride instead of a lr next weekend.

I’ve read that the worst sections of the Fed Trail bike track have been smoothed off. Will have to check it out on the bike.

Finally got the new Rush CD on Friday night. It didn’t turn up via Amazon (they’re going to sent it a again) so I ended up buying it as JB hifi. It always takes a few listens to ‘get’ Rush songs as the arrangements and vocal style often sound initially (very) odd. After several listens its starting to click in now. There are really gorgeous melodies emerging from just about all the tracks. It’s a dynamic album ranging from very gentle to as heavy as Rush gets. Much enjoyment ahead for me. They’re touring all around Nth America & Europe later this year. Seeing them live is a pipe dream.

Four Seasons In One Run

2007-05-22T07:49:00.000+10:00

Great to have some traditional Melb weather yesterday. I set off just after midday heading towards Swan St Bridge. Within 10 mins I was being pelted with cold rain. It felt like the rain was about to turn into hail so I started contemplating what I would do if it hailed. As it turns out the hail didn’t come & I realised that my best chance of getting warm was to keep running.

After a further 20 mins I realised the rain had stopped, obviously I’d acclimatised as I hadn’t noticed. When I got to Morell bridge I was tossing up between heading straight back or going up Anderson St. I decided to pop over & check out some works that are taking place on the famous Tan track. The asphelt at the bottom of the Anderson St section of the track is currently being re-laid, so the workers have cordoned off a section of Andeson St itself for the runners to use. Got up the hill pretty comfortably & ran around to Swan St Bridge where I crossed the river. I then ran up the boardwalk hill at Birrung Marr (sp?). I always like running up this one. It’s easier than Anderson & I enjoy the bells playing their random tune.

Felt a few warm sunny breaks on the return leg & the wind had backed off. When running on the brief bluestone section at the back of the Banana Alley Vaults a bloke asked me to take a detour as a film crew was working ahead. He seemed to be asking me to step down to an area even closer to the river that I’m not familiar with. I really didn’t feel like stopping & detouring at this point & wasn’t exactly sure where his detour would take me. Also I was conscious of being careful about turning on the slippery, uneven blustones. So I made a split decision to ignore his request & keep going. He said ‘thanks for you cooperation’ (not)! Anyway I ran by their shoot apparently without disturbing them. Well I didn’t hear ‘CUT!’ from the director at least. Then for the next 5 mins I was wondeing if I just behaived like an A grade arsehole. I find I reflect on things a lot when I’m running.

A nice 1 hour run all up (about 10.4 ks).

For the week ending Sun 20 May I was all set for a mid 40s km total, however the Sunday long run failed to happen (busy again)! Ah well have to settle for 33.5.

A race planned!
Yep. Fully intending to do the Coburg bluestone classic on Sat 16 June. This is a low key 15ker starting at Coburg. In the blurb it says 9 of the ks is a challenging cross terrain & 3 ks are on athletic track. It sounds like a hoot & just the surface for my dodgy knees.

Aldi running gear comments (for SparkDriver & anyone interested).
Two thumbs up! I wore the bike-style shorts & singlet for a 47 min run on Saturday. Very happy with my purchases. The bike shorts are pretty ‘revealing’ so I wore running shorts over the top of them. This worked fine. The brand name for this gear is ‘Crane’ & it’s exclusive to Aldi. I’m not sure if they sell it at all times. Maybe just when they get deliveries. Anyway, well worth picking up if you can.

Joined Team Aldi

2007-05-15T11:42:00.000+10:00

Wow! A fortnight since my last update. Sorry about being so infrequent. Life is busy and in relation to my running I’ve got a bit of a ‘just shud up n run’ attitude going, which makes for a hella dull blog.

Weekly ks have consistently been between 30-40 for 7 weeks now. Planning to bump it to the 40s & 50s in the coming months with a view to doing a HM later in the year.

If I stay consistent for the next 4-6 weeks I’ll probably do a 10ker around then too. I’ve only run one 10ker before & that was pre the 2006 R knee surgery. It was a very tough blustery day & I ran 45:07. I reckon I could get under 45 with good training. Determining my current 10k race pace will help me set a HM goal.

Both knees have been intermittently niggly/achy during and after some runs. I’m putting it down to early osteoarthritis (given my history of surgeries in each knee, I think I’m a monty for oa).

Best run of late was last Saturday. 81 mins along the Werribee river with knees feeling great all the way.

I’ve kept up the regular bike riding too, though it’s been mostly shorter commuting rides rather than long training rides.

Recently got 2 pairs of running shorts and a running singlet from Aldi at $9.00 a piece. Thrifty!

Eagerly awaiting some goodies in the mail:
Some coolrunning flashing lights which I intend to use for night riding and running.
The new Rush CD which has been available everywhere since 01 May except the Antipodes! Reading reviews online was initially tantalising, now it's just: Arghhhhh I gotta hear this thing!

How to compare running shoes

2007-05-01T14:52:00.000+10:00

April stats:
20 runs
Time running 13h 25m
Dist. ~146k (most since Jan ’06)
Cross training: Cycling for about 4 hours.
Weight: 80kg (down about 1).
Height: 185 (steady)
Waist: keep forgetting to check. Looking leaner.

I didn’t manage the 40k week. Only 31.6k in fact. Wont bother listing excuses.

I did another 4.5k hard run last Thursday in 18:57 at the Bolte Bolt. That’s 4:13 pace! Happy. When I was putting my shoes on for this run I realised I packed odd running shoes! I had a L & R at least, so I was still in business! It occurred to me that doing this is a good way to compare shoes. In this case one shoe had done 630ks & one had done only 50ks. I couldn’t notice any real difference so I think there’s life in the old pair yet.

On the next day I felt like trying one of the Run to the G training runs so I ran to Fed square at lunchtime to meet some others for a 6k’er. Only two other runners turned up! Me & another bloke requested a medium pace run. We were assigned Sarah as our run leader & we were off. We made our way to the Tan via Swan St & did an anti-clockwise lap. Having a chat while running is a nice novelty for me. Sarah reckons we were doing about 5:15 pace except for the last bit when we quickened a bit. Nice run. Might do some more of these on Fridays.

Both knees have been a bit sore since these runs. Nothing serious, I think. I’ll skip the hard surface fast runs (eg Bolte Bolt) for 6 weeks or so.

On Sunday I tried to combine a longer run with a mailbox brochure drop for the local primary school that I volunteered to help with. My starting point was 3k from home. I ran that slowly with the brochures in a bum bag. I did more walking than running when doing the actual mailing and then ran a further 4k to home. Not exactly a long run but it’s time on the feet.

Some wet & windy weather ahead still hope to do 35-40k this week.

To Steve:
Thanks for the You Yangs offer. I’ll let you know when I feel up to it and I’ll blog details about the Brighton to Black Rock unsealed track once I’ve checked it out.

Nice cool weather

2007-04-23T12:12:00.000+10:00

Runs since last post:

Thu 12 Apr 4.5km @ 4:26pace (hard effort)
Sun 15 Apr ‘10.9km @ ~6:00 pace (‘long’)
Tue 17 Apr 10km @ ~5:45 pace
Thu 19 Apr 9.7km @ ~5:20 pace
Sat 21 Apr 6.5km @ ~5:15 pace
Sun 22 Apr 11.7km @ ~6:00 pace (‘long’)

Total of 38k for the week ending Sun 22 Apr.

Really enjoyed yesterday’s longish run & have pulled up feeling very fresh. Lovely to have some cooler, overcast weather and even some rain!

I might get over 40ks for the week ahead.

Very keen to do some trail runs. Have read about, & seen some photos of a southbound unsealed trail starting at Brighton beach. Would love to get there in an upcoming weekend! Also, the You Yangs are always an option, though it seems the hills are tough!

I will start an official (novice) HM program shortly. I guess the HM at the Melb M/HM in early Oct is looking like a distinct possibility. Only trouble is is that 21ks on cambered road does not float my boat.

Beaten by the Feds

2007-04-11T15:22:00.000+10:00

Hope everyone had a great Easter.

In the week ending Sunday 8 April I ran for 2h 45m at ~5:30 pace (about 30ks). I also did a long bike ride on Sunday.

Last Thursday I ran in rain for 51mins. I had a Nike drifit t-shirt on (2006 Run4theKids top). During the run I was aware that the shirt was very wet & my nipples were a bit sore. When I finished I realised they were bleeding from chafing. Painful showers for a few days. I didn’t realise that you were much more prone to chafing when running in the rain. Lesson learned. Bodyglide is now in my kit bag.

The main purpose long bike ride was to find out if riding to work from Werribee to Docklands (near the CBD) would be feasible for me at this stage. I got a definitive answer: No!

I rode to Yarraville & back, a total of about 55ks in about 2h 35m. Most of the ride was on the Federation Trail bike track. I have previously blogged about the bumpy surface of this track. I was on a different section of the trail for this ride, but the surface is equally as bumpy. The bumpiness is actually most noticeable when you get off the trail and onto a smooth road. Suddenly riding becomes so much easier and faster!

Shortly after I started heading home fatigue hit me. Even though I had a favourable light tail wind I was just hanging in there for the last 55mins. Those relentless bumps just sap the zing out of your legs! It was during this part of the ride that I realised that I simply could not face this ride as a regular work commute at the moment.

I even reckon a cyclist riding 300k per week would find this ride pretty tough and miserable. It’s a pity the Fed Trail is so poor for riding because the rest of the route was very promising (I found a good, safe way of getting from Brooklyn to Footscray Rd).

At least now I can say I’ve ridden the entire length of the Fed Trail. I certainly have no plans to do any long rides on it in future. I’ll keep doing recreational rides on other routes every week or so. Those rides are still fun.

My legs were still pretty shot on Tuesday but I insisted it was time for a run. The legs freed up pretty quickly & I ran for 51m 49s at ~5:30pace in the Docklands – Sth Melb area. Another run today Docklands to Morell Bridge out & back 47m 29s again at about 5:30 pace.

Everything going well on the running front. I’m overdue a 60-70min ‘lsd’ run. Also well overdue a massage.

Mooloolaba runs

2007-04-03T15:55:00.000+10:00

We’re back from our 8 night Mooloolaba holiday that we fitted in between the big Mooloolaba triathlon held every year and the Tsunami warnings! Had a great time relaxing by the pool and at the beach. The weather ranged from very warm to damn hot. Got up early to beat the heat a few times and did some running along the mostly concrete coastal path.

This was our third holiday in Mooloolaba (it’s become our destination in the past few years though I still have to look up how to spell it). On all three holidays I’ve been impressed by the number of people up and exercising along the coast at first light (prior to 6am). It helped me get motivated to join them. I did four early morning, and one dusk run while away.

All of the runs included 2x the hill between Mooloolaba and Alexandra Headland. It was good to have convenient access to a hill for a change. As a point of reference, I’d guess this hill is about 75% as tough as The Tan’s Anderson St hill. Experienced runners would barely notice it.

I did one longer run (about 13k). The rest were about 4-7.5ks. On a tourist map I spotted a very small Island off Maroochydore called Chambers Island. According to the map there was footbridge access to the Island. It looked about the right distance for an out & back longer run so I decided to head for that on day. After 36 mins of running I couldn’t find it & thought I was off course. It was only when I got back & checked the map that I realised I was basically right there, just didn’t spot the Island! Obviously I’m no navigator! Never mind, managed to rack up about 13ks.

On one of the other runs I was slowly reeling in a male runner up ahead. When I got close he apparently heard my steps & sped up a bit. I stayed on his tail for a couple of mins and he kept creeping the pace up. OK buddy, so you don’t like getting passed when training huh, I thought? Suddenly my competitive juices were taking over! I got shoulder to shoulder with him and could then hear his breathing was a bit loud and laboured. I was still feeling pretty comfortable & deliberately kept my breathing as quiet as possible. Jeeez I don’t normally get competitive like this in a training run! Anyway, it was time to fully pwn this guy, so I took off and ran pretty damn hard for the final 1.5k of that run. I did some stretching at the end of the run close to the path but didn’t see my racing partner again.

Losing my training pace so readily is pretty pathetic I guess. Lack of experience running with others may be a factor.

March summary:
12 hours 54 min (approx 122ks) running + several bike rides.

Considering March contained the holiday, a weeklong bout of lethargy & some ongoing car trouble disrupting several planned runs, I am happy enough with this total for March.

A brick & a beer can

2007-03-20T10:48:00.000+11:00

9 runs & 2 bike rides since last post! 3 hours & 37 min running (about 36ks) for the week ending Sunday Mar 18.

Very happy with the consistency I’m maintaining. The only thing lacking in the last 10 days has been a run in the 60 min vicinity. The longest I managed was only 48 mins (due to not getting up early enough).

Since Saturday I’ve been feeling a bit tired & achy, like a flu is coming on, except the flu hasn’t hit me yet. Also have some muscle stiffness & mild pain in my left lower back for some reason (don’t normally have back trouble).

On Sunday I did a 50 min bike ride. I had running shoes on & I decided to go for a short run immediately after getting off the bike (I think these are called brick sessions). The feeling in the legs was ‘interesting’ at the start of the run. I only ran for 12 minutes.

Cut short the run yesterday didn’t feel great (still tired & a bit achy).

Oh yeah, I got my first projectile thrown at me from a moving car yesterday. I think it was a beer can with plenty in it. Such a waste. And he missed me.

I should get another 30-35ks in this week.

We’re off to the Sunshine Coast on Sunday for 7 nights. Yay! I’ll get some nice runs along the beach in for sure.

After the holiday I might start commuting to & from work on my bike a couple of days per week. I've worked out a route taking in the Federation Trail & the Footscray Rd bike path. The tricky bit is the ~5ks that separates these paths - very busy roads with lots of trucks. After studying the Melways I may have a solution but will need to do a test ride on a weekend after the holiday.

Footwear update
I’ve decided to get Nike Frees for walking shoes. In theory these will help strengthen the muscles in the foot. I will run 1 or 2k per week in these as well for the same reason.

I went to Rebel to have a look & ended up buying a pair of running shoes! Well I’m due a pair & they had Asics 2110s on special for $159. Didn’t get the Frees yet, hoping that last year’s model will be on special soon.

To those doing Run for the Kids 07, have a rippa run & enjoy yourselves!

Looking into some races

2007-03-09T09:21:00.000+11:00

Runs since last post:

Tue 06 Mar 43:30 running @ ~5:20 pace on flat Docklands/Port Melb course. HR 160 at end.

Wed 07 Mar 49:10 running @ ~5:45 pace on flat Docklands/Port Melb course. HR 148 at end.

I’m trying to build my aerobic base which means keeping HR below 140, so both of these were too fast. Silly me, again!

Thu 08 Mar 35:30 running @ ~7:05 pace on flat Werribee river course. HR 104 at end.

Hoping for a 60 min bike ride on Sat & 60 min run on Sunday.

Doing a 35 min run (albeit very slowly) and having my HR just over double digits is very pleasing. Here’s a reminder why:

http://www.rrca.org/resources/articles/slowdown.html

(Sorry, can't seem to post hyperlink atm).

Thanks to Steve for the suggestion of the Melb HM in October. I’d have to say it’s a definite maybe. Also, I’ve noticed in the coolrunning calendar there’s plenty of smaller & shorter runs being put on by Sri Chinmoy and Coburg Aths over winter which ALL sound good.

I heard from the research scientist who’s conducting the knee study that I’m a guinea pig in. He confirmed that the post-op MRI I had a few weeks ago showed nothing that requires further investigation. So I’ll just keep taking glucosimine and keep on running…..

Hello Tan (part thereof)

2007-03-05T09:59:00.001+11:00

Last Thu lunchtime I ran from Docklands & decided to head along the Yarra towards Swan St and The Tan. I was only supposed to do a 5k run, but I decided to exceed this by getting onto The Tan to use the km markers to get a ballpark idea of my current easy/conversational pace (I’m not a gadget wearer). It was good to get back on The Tan for the first time since April ’06.

I got on at about the 3.25km mark and ran against the tide of runners in an anti-clockwise direction until I got to the 2.5k marker. At this point I turned around and re-set the stopwatch and ran at my easy pace. I quietly said a few sentences of gibberish in an attempt to check if the pace was conversational. When I got to the 3.5 marker I checked the watch: 5:39. Because that km is a bit downhill, I’m adjusting it to 5:45 mins/km. I also manually checked my heart rate at this point: 35 beats in 15 seconds = 140 bpm. I know this pace measurement is pretty rough but that’s OK for me at the moment.

By the time I ran back to Docklands I had just about 50 min on my feet racked up, I’m logging it as 8.4kms.

Rested on Frid and decided to go for a cross-training bike ride on Sat am instead of a 5k run. About 50 mins riding in very humid conditions. Thunder & cold rain was starting in the last 500m, so I did a sprint finish. Puff, puff, pant!

On Sunday I got up early & did my short long run. About 55 mins running an out & back course along the Werribee river. Pace: about 6 min/km. Distance: about 9km. Pace & duration felt nice & easy.

Week ending Sunday summary:

30k’s running + 50 min cross training.
Week ahead: Same again.

In the market for new shoes:
I’ve currently got 2 pairs of running shoes in circulation. Loco Expressos (200k running on the clock) and Asics 2100s with nearly 500ks running + at least 200k walking racked-up. I have no idea what the walking ‘wear-out’ factor is on running shoes. Anyway from now on I want to use my running shoes for running-only.

I’ve got another pair of 2100s with 950km running in them. I thought they’re probably OK for walking so I did an experimental 3km walk. WRONG! They felt shocking & made various lower leg muscles complain. I found it interesting that a worm out pair of shoes would have such a noticeable effect.

What I learned from that is I need a pair of walking shoes AND the current pair of 2100s that I’m running in better be replaced in the next month or so. My next pair of running shoes will probably be Loco Mojos (stability).

As for walking shoes I’m tossing up between something cheap (say $50) or Nike Frees (supposed to be a close to barefoot as you can get with shoes on). Hmmm decisions.

Don't break the 10% rule. I did but I think I got away with it!

2007-02-27T09:33:00.000+11:00

I did the 1:20 long run on Sunday, out & back run all along the river. Turned around at the Werribee pool. With 6x1 min walk breaks & cool down it was close to 1:30 on feet (about 13ks of running).

Weekly kms planned was 31 (which I said would be a challenge) actual was 40ks. The week earlier I did 24k, so I shattered the 10% rule. Very, very silly me. I've got some general soreness and tiredness but luckily I don't think I'm injured.

I want to be conservative in my build up so I've revised my plan. Now I'm going to keep the weekly ks in the low 30s for the next 8 weeks. Pace will be about 5:45-6:15 min per km. Long runs will up to 1 hour, no longer. After the 8 weeks I should have a strong enough base to start a half marathon program. All I'll need then is a HM to aim for. Although truth be told, I'm not particularly driven by events. Setting a plan and chipping away at the journey does it for me.

Did an easy 33:20 (approx 5.5 k) this morning down around Port Melb again. Planning the same again tomorrow & Thu. On Sat I'd like to go for a bike ride and will do an 8k lr on Sunday.

Have a great week.

Man stands on dog

2007-02-23T11:21:00.000+11:00

Two more runs on Thu and Fri mornings on a different route: Docklands to Port Melb beach & return. The plan only called for 5k runs but on both occasions I was having so much fun I exceeded that by a fair bit. There’s a great atmosphere along the Port Melb-Albert Park foreshore path in the mornings with heaps of runners, cyclists and group training bods about.

The Thu run was 42:40 in duration (about 7.2k) & the Fri was 46:40 (about 8k).

When running down to Port Melb this morning a man pushing a pram with an off-leash black Labrador were coming from the other direction. The Lab started bounding towards me. I was pretty sure it had fun in mind, so I wasn’t concerned. When it got within 3m & was still bounding I slowed right down, put my arms up in exasperation and said ‘farrrk’ loud enough for the owner to hear me. Owner said nothing, dog stopped right in front of me, ready for play. It was only a young dog, a fully grown pup, obviously completely untrained. As I stepped around it I accidentally stood on one of its paws & it let out a pained yelp. This was on the dirt, not concrete. I’m sure the yelp was from fright, not injury. Anyway by this time Mr owner was there holding the dog & quietly talking to it. We didn’t exchange any words. I would have appreciated an apology (although he's probably bitching about me in a 'Labrador Love' blog somewhere)!

In all of the many dog encounters I’ve had when running I never hear owners using a loud stern voice to try to bring them into line. Why not? That’s a fundamental part of training a dog isn’t it? Dog owners: If you can’t/won’t control your dog, keep it on a leash!!!

There’s heaps of cyclists using that path. Could be ugly if that dog decides to play with a cyclist doing 35kph.

As I ran on I thought about what I could have said to him. Came up with ‘hope you don’t raise your kid that way!’

Anyway that didn’t prevent me from enjoying the runs very much.

80-85 min lr planned for Sunday.

'Because The Night'

2007-02-21T11:03:00.000+11:00

My mornings have been crunched for time so I’ve had to revert to a couple of evening runs so far this week. It has reminded me that running in the evening dark is my preferred time. It feels like I’m floating along with less effort in the dark. Another advantage is there’s generally no time pressure so I’m less likely to skip the warm down & stretching.

The downsides to running in the evening that I’ve discovered are having to run on the bitumen or concrete, an acidified version of dinner burning my oesophagus and eating into kids-free time with Lisa. I’ll probably continue them once in a while.

On Monday night I did an easy paced 38.5 mins. I got passed by another runner at about the 25 min mark. I could hear his steps & breathing approaching. As he slowly passed I told myself to hold my easy pace. He was only going a bit faster than me and I thought about catching up to introduce myself & exchange training routines & goals (I don’t encounter runners very often on my local runs wouldn’t mind doing some runs with others for a change). After thinking about it for a while I decided he was too far ahead so I didn’t worry about it this time. HR was 130 upon finishing

On Tuesday night I went out at a similar time and did a 28min easy run as per my plan. No sign of my running brother from last night. HR 130 upon finishing.

Lovely conditions for both runs. The other thing of note is that for the first time post knee op I was off the dirt/grass and on bitumen and concrete for the whole time. No serious knee dramas.

To try to make sure I don’t get injured from an imbalanced program I’m considering the following:
100-110 minutes running in the 6 days leading up to a long run gives ‘permission’ to do a 60 minute long run.
111-120 minutes during the week permits a 70 minute lr
121-130 minutes during the week permits a 80 minute lr
131-140 minutes during the week permits a 85 minute lr
141-150 minutes during the week permits a 90 minute lr
151-160 minutes during the week permits a 95 minute lr, etc

This keeps the lr time/total time below 40%.

Got the job done

2007-02-19T09:31:00.000+11:00

On Sat evening I was mulling over how I was going to get a 70-75 min run completed in comfort, considering Sunday’s weather forecast: overnight min: 24, max: 38.

Here’s the plan I came up with:

Start at 06:30am latest
Carry a water bottle
In the first 50 minutes of the session, alternate running for about 7 mins with walking for 1 min
Run loops rather than an out & back (so I can drop the bottle).

After a bit of hesitation I got out of bed and was doing a warmup walk prior to 06:30. It didn’t feel too warm. Probably more like 20 deg. than 24.

Started slowly running after a few minutes, carrying a 1 litre bottle in my hand. I crossed the river at the dam wall and made my way to Presidents Park. This is a large open space that is good for running around as the ground is flat & even. Carrying the bottle for 2.5k was getting a bit annoying so I dropped it near a recognisable tree. This made running feel MUCH better!

I ran a couple of laps of the Park, not forgetting to do the 1 min walk every now & then. I found a water tap along the way, so now I had two spots to have a sip. When I got back to the bottle for the second time I took a big drink & headed home.

I racked up 1 hour 16 mins on my feet. Less the walking it would have been 1 hour 10 min running. Apart from the knees complaining for about 10 secs when I resumed running after a walk break, I was happy with how the run went. The combination of walking & hydration I’m sure is a bit help. I have pulled up OK.

Distance would have been something like 11k. Total for the week:24k. Missing Friday’s run meant I was down my planned 29.

31k planned this week ahead. A challenging goal for me at the mo.

--

In music news, I’ve said it before, I’m a big Rush fan so I’m very pleased to be seeing & hearing some snippets about their new album:

Being released in the US on 01 May
Produced by the guy who’s done the last 2 Foo Fighters albums and Neil Peart (the drummer of Rush) said that he pushed them to (or possibly beyond) the edge of their musical abilities. That makes me say WOW!
Album title: Snakes & ArrowsFirst ‘single’ title: Far Cry
Touring Nth America in summer: Highly unlikely to be going. Will just have to keep watching my DVDs.

Taxi!!!

2007-02-16T09:40:00.000+11:00

As it turns out I didn’t miss the run on Tuesday. I got out there at 8:20pm. Because it was nearly dark I ran on the bitumen & concrete rather than the dirt. It was a lovely evening & it felt like I was floating along nicely in the dark. Ran for 30’40” slightly quicker than my recent pace.

Ran during a warm lunchtime on Wed. Did a 4.5k route that I have run hard many times pre injury. Started off nice & slow but being on this route again & seeing some other runners about (including one who passed me) was enough for me to lose my discipline resulting in me going too fast in the second half. Completed the run in 22’15” which is 5min/km pace. Too fast for me at this stage. HR was 160 at the end.

Ran again at 06:15am on a humid Thu morning. Third run in 34 hours & my legs & lungs were protesting! The plan was for 6ks. I was trying to go slow & easy but it was still tough as the ground was made of molasses. This run was no fun at all. Decided to cut it short so only ran for 19’40”. HR was 150 at the end and I was very sweaty.

Definitely need a break so I won’t do the scheduled run today (Fri). It’s gonna be hot on the weekend so I’ll start my 75 min run at about 06:15am on Sunday. Hope I’m refreshed by then.

Coming along

2007-02-13T10:23:00.000+11:00

I have maintained the 4 days/week running plan to date. The plan I made up several weeks ago says from this week I'm to start running 5 days/week (Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun), however I’m likely to miss today’s run. Nevermind.

Weekly ks for Jan/Feb have been in the mid-high 20s. Want to gradually get that into the 40s over the coming weeks/months.

On 4 Feb I did a 1hr 7min run. First time over an hour since April. In following the theory that 1 in 4 weeks should be a bit shorter & easier, last Sunday morning I only ran for 52 mins. I hope to do about 70-75 mins this Sunday.

For something a bit different, I’ve done a few runs taking in the ‘other’ side of the Werribee river, where there’s no bike path so you run on an undulating trail amongst the trees and rocks in the dry part of the river bed. Keeps things interesting. Just have to try to make sure I don’t land a foot in a rabbit warren.

Top of the R tibia is a bit tender so missing a run is probably wise.

Keeping it up

2007-02-02T19:07:00.000+11:00

Been away from the PC for a while so little chance to blog. Have got myself into a routine of running 4 days per week on Tue, Thu, Fri & Sun mornings.

Sunday mornings is the ‘long’ run which is getting close to 1 hour. The others have been for 28-35 mins.

Very happy with the way it’s going. I hope to do a 65-70 min run this Sunday.

Will be more expansive next week.

.....Miles and miles I run....

2007-01-22T15:40:00.000+11:00

Carried out my threat to run on consecutive days when I covered ~4.5k in 26:40 on Friday.

On Saturday I went into the bowels of Epworth Hosp to have a free MRI on my much blogged about R knee. This is part of the Melb Uni knee study that I’m participating in. As expected, no hint from the technician about how it looks (don’t even know if they see anything real-time).

I also haded in the Actigraph activity detector which I’d worn for a week. I did 3 runs with it on so that should give them geeks something to mull over.

Checked the chemist at the Epworth for any glucosamine deals going down & picked up 200 1,000mg . I take either one or two of these per day (along with vit C).

Checked weight at home: 83kg! (was 80.5 at Melb Uni 2 weeks ago). Carrying it around the waist. Pretty sure it’ll drop off if I run consistently and don’t go crazy on the fang. Should regularly check & post up hip & waist measurements as that’s more telling, I believe.

Sunday: ‘Long’ run day. 48:50 on feet at a nice leisurely pace starting at 07:30am. I’m logging 8.1km as the estimated distance. Heart rate ~140 at the end.
Carried round a fair bit of mud on the shoes as the dirt next to the bike track was a bit muddy after the rain on Sat.

R knee not perfect but a lot closer to it than me, so I won’t complain.

The planned running week ahead: 25km including a 9k ‘longie’.

Thread title is lyrics from a song by 'The Gathering' from their album 'how to measure a planet'. Good Dutch rock band with a female vocalist with a beautiful voice.

Out there

2007-01-18T15:20:00.001+11:00

Have been following my little running program diligently.

28 mins (4.9km) on Tuesday morning.

10 min run this morning to get to the train station on time (just made it).
30 mins (5.1km) lunchtime today in the heat & humidity which I’d cleverly been avoiding until today.

Also did another 2x20min bike rides the other day (commuting to & fro the train station).

Another run planned for tomorrow (wow, consecutive days, first time in ages).

A day at the races

2007-01-15T09:47:00.000+11:00

Saturday:
Saturday was set aside as a day to go to the Werribee (horse) races as it was ‘kids day’.

It’s possible to ride a bike from home to the Werribee racecourse using a bike track 90% of the time so I suggested to Lisa that I ride & meet her & the kids there. We then realised that we needed some cash, so I had to ride to the course via an ATM. I left home first so both parties arrived at the course at about the same time. I put on some jeans and a shirt that I had in my backpack, locked up the bike & we were all set.

I’m not exactly a racing type, in fact I’ve laid about 3 small bets in my life & this was only my second time at a course. The kids got a ‘showbag’ and a couple of goes in a jumping castle so they were happy. . When you see them up close, horses running fast (galloping I think is the term) is quite impressive. I didn’t lose my shirt (I didn’t place any bets). We stayed for about 5 races & headed home. I got onto the bike track & rode pretty hard. Lisa & the kids still beat me home by a minute or 2. Bugger! About 40 mins riding all up.

Sunday:
Set out at 9am intending to run about 7ks in about 42mins (though secretly thinking it would be OK if it extends to mid 40s). I crossed the river at the damn wall near the historic park & was running in a large open area called Presidents Park. I looked at my watch & it was up to 21mins & I knew I was at least 25 mins from home so it was going to be longer than 42min. Kept on going at a nice comfortable pace and got home in 47mins. It would have been close to 8ks. Heart rate 140 at the end. Felt good all the way. Longest run since April 06. It’s just great to be back out there.

Was wearing a cotton T shirt & there was a hint of nipple chafing at the end of the run. Might have to dig out the coolmax top & bodyglide. Wow. Haven’t needed that for ages.

I don’t have any compression tights so after the run I put a compression stocking on my R leg that I got from hospital following my arthroscope & wore it all day.

Niggles/Injuries
Nothing much to report. :-)
That 8k run was probably to the limit of my R knee’s current capability. I thought it might be a bit inflamed afterwards, but it seems fine now.

The only other thing is, since Friday I’ve had a sensation of coolness on my R quad. Feels a lot like I’ve spilled a cool drink on my pants (I haven’t). Constricted nerve I guess. Will do some massage.

How long a night is

2007-01-12T10:11:00.000+11:00

In keeping with my commitment to ride or swim on non-running days, I went for a very enjoyable 30min bike ride as the sun was setting last night. The weather was beautiful and the riding was medium pace.

I’ve planned my runs for the next few weeks in a spreadsheet. Today called for easy 5k (all my runs will be easy unless otherwise specified). I overslept a bit this morning but got out the door at about 6:15am. Just as I was starting I noticed a girl/young lady who seemed to have just started a run and was going damn fast! She headed down the bike path and in the same direction that I go. At the pace she was going I guessed that she was doing about a 1 mile time trial or something. I set out at my usual pace of about 5:40/km thinking I would see her soon enough (from either her slowing right down or turning around), however after each bend she got smaller & smaller!

It was time for me to turn around after 14mins. At that point I saw her crossing the bridge 100s of meters ahead and didn’t see her again after that. Pretty impressive.

5k run completed. My knee now feels strong during and post exercise. Great for the confidence. As mentioned earlier, the jointline tenderness disappeared immediately after a run on Dec 24. That ties in with an article that was highlighted by a runner on coolrunning.com. The article suggests that in some cases continuing to exercise sensibly is good for injured tissue.

Here’s how long a night goes for: 10hours and 53mins!

5.9km is not an insignificant distance to run!

2007-01-10T12:31:00.000+11:00

In some recent runs I’ve been getting ever closer to the Shaws Rd bridge. Early this morning, simply because it’s there, I ran to it (slightly beyond it in fact). I checked the distance on mapmyrun.com & it’s just short of 3kms from my start point so it’s about a 5.9 out & back run.

Didn’t wear my watch for this run (my 5yo son Lachlan was using it to time 'how long a night is'). The run time would have been about 35mins. Nice & cool morning considering how hot it’s going to be today. I was wearing the actigraph motion detector for the Melb Uni study.

In late 2005/early 2006 a 6k run was about as short as I was doing. Coming from 11 months of <4k runs I can tell you that 6k is quite a run. Having said that, I did it at easy pace & easy breathing all the way.

The extra minutes running and stretching afterwards put me behind schedule. I might have to nudge the alarm time back to 5:40am. Yikes!

Happy with the way things are going. I intend to run 4 days a week for the next 3-4 weeks and do a 10-12k training run in early Feb.

And to Vicky: I guess they think that that activity doesn’t count, but I reckon it does. ;-)

Guinea Pig

2007-01-09T09:23:00.000+11:00

Seem to have recovered fine from the post festive season lethargy. Three more runs since last update:

Thu 04 Jan 8:20pm for 27 mins (~4.6k)
Sat 06 Jan 09:00am for 27:50 (~5k)
Mon 08 Jan 06:00am for 21:50 (~3.9)

All the runs were along the Werribee river towards the Shaws Rd bridge (flat course). Running on the dirt/weeds next to the path. No sign of my footsteps forming a trail yet!

Heart rate in the 150-160 range at the end of these runs. I’ll permit this for the next month or so before I start keeping it strictly below 140.

Also did a 30min bike ride on Sunday to return some DVDs. I give Brokeback Mountain 3.5/5 stars and Jindabyne 0/5 stars. I’m no movie buff, but Jindabyne is in the lower echelon of stinkers that I’ve had the misfortune of seeing (OK, I admit I didn’t make it all the way to the end).

Warning long post about biomechanical tests:

I had my free biomechanical tests yerterday as part of a Melb Uni School of Physio study comparing osteoarthritis development in people who’ve had a part medial menisectomy to those in a control group with unoperated knees.

The control group tests have been completed & I’m the 66th post-op participant so the initial data gathering phase is nearly completed and I was able to get some preliminary muscle strength results relative to those already tested.

First step was height & weight. 184cm & 80.5kg (would like to be 75). Some other measurements as well such as tibia angle when standing and foot length. My feet are symmetrical, which he said is not as common as you might think.

Then got hooked up with about 8 electrodes on the leg muscles then started with quad and hammie strength tests. Results showed hammie strength well above average (relative to body weight) for males in both the post-op group and the control group. The quad however was about average for males in the post-op group and a fair bit weaker than males in the control group. So the quad strength is down a fair bit.

Next was the 3-d imaging of my walking and slow running. I had about 20 little reflective balls stuck to my feet, legs, hips, shoulders & neck and did a heap of 10m walks & jogs under 8 cameras. The cameras detect the balls and the results appear as 3-d on the screen. If you’ve seen the footage of Murali’s bowling tests conducted at Perth, this is a similar concept (though I wasn’t bowling of course).

Results for this test take a while to analyse, but it was interesting to see the moving dots representing my walking & slow running.

Lastly there was a sideways flexibility test of the knee. Strapped into machine. Upper leg totally immobilised, while machine moves lower leg from side to side. Bizarre and disconcerting to look at this machine moving your lower leg back & forth sideways. No pain though. I was in normal range for this.

For the tests I was kitted out as follows:
Board shorts on with Velcro loops around the legs of the shorts to hold them up.
T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the shoulders so the reflective balls stuck to the shoulders could be picked up by the cameras and the bottom of the t-shirt rolled up to expose the reflective balls stuck on my hips.
8 Exectrodes with cables leading to a battery pack
Battery pack attached to a belt worn around waist.
The previously mentioned 20 reflective balls
White tape in various places to hold everything in place
A fishnet white stocking on the R leg to keep the cables tidy.

No doubt I looked pretty funny. Felt like saying to the guy ‘so what are you doing after this?. I’m up for….whatever’.

MRI & bone density tests to come shortly.

Also I’m wearing an activity monitor (small thing attached to waistline of pants/shorts) for the next week (no, I don’t need to wear it to bed). This, I believe is like a high tech, very sensitive pedometer. I hope to log 3-4 runs with this on. He said that they can tell when people have run as the readings are ‘off the chart’.

These tests will be repeated in a couple of years.

‘Twas all very interesting. Now I’ve gone and made a marathon post about it, hopefully not too boring.

2007

2007-01-02T11:34:00.000+11:00

Well, that's Christmas & New Years done & dusted. Predictably I overindulged.

The jointline tenderness mentioned recently improved but was still slightly there on 24 Dec when I decided to go for a run & see how it goes. It is now fine!

Have done the following runs since last post:

24 Dec 19:30 (~3.5km)
26 Dec 31:00 (~5.3km)
27 Dec 24:00 (~4.2km)
30 Dec 27:00 (~4.5km)
31 Dec 14:00 (~2.5km)

Yep, you saw right, I did a 30 min run & survived! Felt really great after that one. Hello endorphins!

Have been feeling really sluggish since NYE. Tried to shrug it off with a short run at 8:45pm on NYE but it didn't work. I'm guessing a few days of eating better will help a lot.

2006 running summary
Jan: 188kms, 17hours:4 min running
Feb: 115 kms, 10:08 (injured R knee)
Mar: 70, 6:22
Apr: 45, 4:00 (including my only event for the year: RunForTheKids)
May: 28, 2:28
June: 28, 2:50
July: 14.5, 1:22
Aug: 27, 2:37
Sep: 28, 2:49
Oct: 15, 1:22 (30% of medial meniscus removed from R knee on the 12th)
Nov: 2, 14:00
Dec: 41, 3:59

Frustrating year. Had hoped to do a couple of half marathons at the start of the year (was in training for the Geelong HM).

2007 running related thoughts
Not aiming for any particular events at this stage. I've been thinking about RunForTheKids but decided against it (might be away then anyway).

Just want to continue on the return to running program. In about a month I'll start keeping close tabs on my heart rate & keep it below 140 at all times (to build an aerobic base).

Bike ride or swim weekly.

Looking forward to the free MRI and biomechanical tests that I should be having later this month.

Would like to enter an event or 2 in the 2nd half of the year.

MC & HNY!

2006-12-21T10:04:00.000+11:00

Haven't run since Tue 12 Dec. Pain on the R knee medial joint line is still there a little bit when I tap it.

Have done a couple of bike rides. I'll resume the walk/run programme shortly. Still haven't made it to the pool.

Been busy of late, so short post.

Have a great Christmas all. Stay safe. Good luck with your 2007 goals.

Crappen Shite - a set back.

2006-12-13T10:50:00.000+11:00

I’ve been getting various intermittent mild niggles in & around the R knee that I don’t bother mentioning in the blog. I consider them ‘settling down’ pains.

On Tues morning I did another 23 min run. From the first step after a 5min walking warm up I noticed some pain on the medial side of the R knee each time the R foot hit the ground (pain right where the medial meniscus is/was). The pain was a bit sharper than other settling pains, but not an obvious run-stopper so I kept going. I guess I shouldn’t have. Knee has pulled up sore & very sensitive to tough in that spot. For example a very light tap or knock on the inside of my knee in the right spot gives very sharp pain. I didn't ice it post run.

It’s only 30 hrs since this aggravation, so I think it should settle down with RICEing. A small set-back I hope.

Plan:
No running until tenderness gone
RICE
Walk (walking's OK), swim, ride.
If not settling by the weekend, voltaren, maybe physio.

When I saw the sports physician a couple of weeks ago we discussed pain & he prescribed me some voltaren just in case I got a niggle along the way.

Running on odd numbered days

2006-12-11T11:35:00.000+11:00

My running resumption was on 1st December and in keeping with my plan to run every second day, so I ran in the am of Thu 9th & Sat 11th.

Both runs were about 23 mins covering about 4ks once again on the dirt/grass along the Werribee river. HR ~140 at the end. Felt fine during the running but very lethargic all weekend (ie strugglung to stay awake)!. I'm blaming the heat for this. It was extreme on the weekend.

Was due a run this (Mon) morning but I was so stuffed on Sunday night I wasn't too fussed & sleeping through the alarm sealed the deal. It's much cooler today & I'm feeling much better so I'll pop out either tonight or tomorrow morning (I'm not supersticious, so I'm fine with running on even numbered days).

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My 5yo son is very into current pop music (eg FOX, NOVA, video hits (eeek!)). Yesterday I bought a microphone so the kids can sing like pop stars through the stereo and record themelves. He only knows about 20% of the lyrics to most songs but that doesn't stop him 'singing' along. One song that he has learned some lyrics from is London London bridge by Fergie. It's so funny watching him dance & sing lines such as 'I'm such a lady but I'm dressing like a ho'. LOL.

Broke the 20 min mark

2006-12-06T09:01:00.000+11:00

When: Tue 5:55am
Duration: 21:15 no walk breaks
Location: Werribee River – Riverbend park area
Dist: ~3.6k (measured on mapmyrun.com)
Surface: grass/dirt
HR: 136 at end
Sightings:
2 runners (one of whom is a girl who lives in my court & runs every morning at a good clip).
Seagulls. They seem to only visit early in the morning. Never see them at other times.
Thoughts: Happy to have gotten back to 20min continuous so quickly.
Next run: Thu am. Something similar. No more than 25 min.

16 of my last 17 runs have been at the river. Not getting bored with it yet. Hope to ride to a footy ground on the weekend & do some barefoot laps though.

Got a fortnightly plan

2006-12-04T11:03:00.000+11:00

Two more short runs early on Friday and Sunday morning.

Warm-up: 5min walk (thanks Vicky, your blog reminds me to do this)
Slow running for 16min on Fri & 18 min Sunday.
Surface: Dirt/grass
HR: ~136 at end
Observations:
Knee feels about 90% (has felt the same for a while. Running does not seem to affect how it feels).
Fitness is way down so I’m not getting much enjoyment from running yet, however the prospect of fitness and running pleasure has got me wound-up. It’s great to be excited but I’ve gotta keep it in check.

The plan: One fortnight at a time
For the next fortnight I’m going to run every second day building up to 25 min max. Also do 1-2 bike rides on non-running days. After that I’ll decide whether I repeat the dose or increase either the frequency or the duration (but not both).

I hope get in the habit of running early morning (pre injury my start time for runs was all over the shop). It’s just a matter of maintaining the discipline for this. Most of the time I’ll run from home but occasionally I’ll drive to The Tan & do a lap there.

I saw the sports physician on Friday. He’s happy for me to do a return to running program. Got some exercises to build up the quad (still a bit smaller than the left). On his recommendation, I’m back on the glucosamine.

MRI & lab tests for the Melb Uni study mentioned earlier will be sometime in Jan. Hoping to present as a healthy specimen.

Good luck to the injured runners (there seems to be a few about atm). And for those who are running watch out for me as you pass :-)

Non-running content:

Have seen the occasional canoeist on the Werribee River near home & it occurred to me that that is the best way to enjoy the river. It’d be great to get something that’s good for family use but also light & small enough for solo use. After doing some googling I think the only thing that could do both is an inflatable dinghy. I assume you’d row one of these. I’d prefer to paddle forwards rather than row backwards.

Anyone with paddling/rowing experience please chime in. In the meantime I’ll try to find out if there’s any canoeing groups that use the river.

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I hope England win the second test as I want the series to be an exciting contest, like 2005. By the 5th test I’d be great to see at least two new faces contributing to the regaining of the Ashes!

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Hot off the press. Rudd has beaten Beazley 49-39. I’d say he’s much more capable of keeping pressure on Howard. Good move IMO.

A run, but I'm not back yet!

2006-11-28T10:07:00.000+11:00

Went for a walk/run!!!

Had yesterday off work & went into Myer city store to get photos of the kids sitting on the knees of an elderly gent with flowing white beard, weird red & white get up with gum boots.

Needed alcohol by the time we got home. Had a beer, white & a red while making & eating dinner. I’m not a big drinker, this is the most I’ve had in ages.

By 8:15pm the kids were in bed, the sun wasn’t yet down, the weather was lovely & I was feeling good about the knee, so out I ventured. Walked for 5 mins then slowly ran on the dirt for 2 mins. Knee felt fine. Continued to alternate walking & running until I had 14 mins of running accrued.

This was my first run since 10 Oct. I’ve lost a lot of condition. It was a slog even though the pace was slow.

My heart rate was only ~128 at the end of the last run, so I clearly wasn’t exerting the CV system yet I felt a hint of asthma coming on. I had heaps of asthma as a kid & can still get exercise induced asthma when I’m unfit (when I’m fit, asthma never happens).

Also both legs were complaining towards the end. 14mins was definitely enough.

It wasn’t exactly an endorphin filled triumphant return. It was very reminiscent of when I started running 2.25 years ago at 92kg. The good news is I’m only 79kg, only 2kg heavier than Feb ’06. This has got to make it easier to get back into it. I wont say ‘I’m back’ until I can do 20min runs & be feeling positive about the body & mind at the end.

R Knee status: There is an intermittent slight niggle at the back of the knee at the medial hamstring tendon.

Made an appt with the sports physician for a routine follow up on Friday, may not run again until then.

In reply to Steve:
Yeah the sealed path does end briefly at Cottrell St but resumes once you’ve gone under the rail bridge. Across Cottrell St there is a narrow, undulating unsealed trail on the West bank. You have to slow right down in this section but its only 200m or so. Once you‘ve gone under the rail bridge, you go up the bank and you’re pretty much at Wyndham Park. I use the pedestrian bridge to cross the river here & then the path continues along the back of the Watton St shops, around the footy ground & all the way to the freeway (where the Fed trail starts). The section from Wyndham Park to the freeway is very nice.

If you’re not keen on the unsealed bit you can run along Cottrell St until you get to the rail crossing, cross at the crossing and re-join the bike path.