I don't mind coming back...

...if only I didn't have to come back so far! I've been taking it carefully over the last 2 weeks, gradually increasing the distance run, and never running two days in a row. My biggest concern at the moment is not my back or bad leg, but that I'll run imbalanced because of them and get everything out of whack. So far, so good. :-)

The first four runs were all in the range 5 - 8k, all around 5:30 to 5:45 pace. Gradually felt stronger after each one. The real test was to come towards the end of this week. Firstly, on Thursday night we had a track session; 4 x 400, 1200 (picking up each 400), 4 x 200 and finish with an 800 (picking up second 400). I went out strongly but sensibly on the first 400, feeling a bit breathless by the end. Around the second 400 I was starting to feel more than breathless. I had to slow down or I wasn't going to make it through the evening. Basically, I suffered through the rest of the 400s and the 1200, feeling more and more dead.

Luckily, there isn't time in 200s to run out of breath, so I was able to run them strongly, which allowed me to analyse my style and get it a lot more efficient. It's amazing how much you (I) forget with time off. Putting that more efficient style in to play on the remaining 400s made a big difference. I wasn't a lot faster, but I was a lot more comfortable.

I had started at 1:30s for the 400. By the end of the 1200, I was doing 1:50s! Ugly. The final 400s were around the 1:40 mark. Considering that I use to do 400 reps consistently at 1:20, that would have been pretty depressing if only I hadn't been so happy about the fact that I was back running! :-)

On Friday, I was (as Tesso once put it) pleasantly trashed. There were no niggles, just a general tiredness and that general muscle soreness that comes from working hard. This morning (Saturday) I headed off to the CR5k challenge. The challenge for me was to a) run 5k at a steady pace, and b) run 5k back home again. On the basis of the runs over the last week, I decided to start on 26 minutes (ie just over 5 minute ks) which meant that I was running by myself. 2:00 at the 0.5k mark indicated that I'd taken it out a bit (a lot) hard, so I carefully pulled back, remembering that I just wanted an even run the whole way. Well, I got that in spades!

Splits were 4:31, 4:35, 4:30, 4:35, 4:27, giving me a finish time of 22:43, and a pace range of only 8 seconds. No doubt, I was super pleased with that :-) :-)

Tux, Martina and Bayin were walking back (healthy lot of crocks we are), and though I was full of good intentions to run the second 5k, it didn't take much persuading (actually, none at all) before I abandoned that thought. Like Thursday night, I have no niggles, but once again my legs are trashed. In an odd way, it's a good feeling because it means that I'm working again, but I'm going to have another non-running day tomorrow - a swim looks like a good idea right now. In fact, sleep lookes an even better idea right now, so that's exactly what I'll do! Farewell and goodnight! :-)

Gnome

Time to Butt Out

After the half I took it easy with a couple of swim sessions and some upper body wts and let the hip calm down. I caught up with Dr. Pain on Thursday and he agreed the hip had calmed down and now we were left with the initial cause. He says it's biomechanical but that's good as it is easier to work on and fix.

So no running for a couple of weeks, lots of glute/piriformis strengthening exercises and see him for a couple of visits and then reassess. So I went to runclub that night and took my bike and windtrainer and set it up beside the track. So while they ran I cycled and got to watch the group. It was interesting watching Pete who is so quick. He completes 3 laps to everyone else's 2. He ran 77xx in the Half last week and was telling us about the enthusiastic reception given to the second girl throughout the race as he ran with her for quite a while. Something I will never experience but then I told him he was to quick to experience the pleasure of seeing the front runners a few times like I did :-)

TA

Hip Hop Smh Half

It was a beautiful morning and it was great to see so many runclubbers, striders and CRs out there today. I was looking at around 2hrs though Tim and Gnome thought I could be a bit quicker until Tim heard about my hip.

I have nursed my hip as best as possible this week but it was the unknown factor. The plan was to run solidly but if the hip was sore to play it by ear. Well the hip decided to whinge right from the start. I couldn't believe it and kept telling myself it would warm up. I was off my splits at 5k so stopped looking at the watch (too often ;-). Last time I ran this in 05 I was just at the 11k mark as the first male came in - this year he beat me by about 500m. At this point I was pretty sore and I have to admit it was a tough decision whether to keep going past the physio tent or just head straight in.

Anyway, I quickly revised my goal to 2.05 and kept going. The last 5 k were fairly excruciating but I "just kept running, just kept running" and when I saw Gnome and Micro at Argyle Corner I excitedly told them "I was going to finish and to meet me in the physio tent at the end". Gnome later told me that everybody around just laughed.

It was very hard not to do the usual burst at the end but I knew that would make the hip worse, so I just maintained my speed and finished in 2.04.xx. I then hobbled to the physio tent and while waiting, caught up with a few friends. I was able to see Dr Pain's colleague and she kindly pushed and poked in all the right places and recommended I have a break for a while.

Gnome, Micro and I then headed up to the pub and caught up with the other CRs before heading off and enjoying a Swans victory.

Hip Hip Hooray - I hope!

This is a reader's digest version :-)

Thursday 10/5 - Runclub track session (lap = 450m) of 12 mins at 7/10 effort, 3x150m, then 25.30 min of laps at 6.5/10. Laps were incredibly consistent but the hip niggled with the 150m's so I only did one.

Saturday 12/5 - 1 lap of SMH Half course in the morning with PT later that morning. PT involved upper body wts ( 2x5 reps at heavier wt then 25reps of a lighter wt - tough), 3x1k reps (all sub 5.00min) and a walk to finish. Hip fine.

Sunday 13/5 - Mother's Day Classic 4k Domain. This is rapidly becoming a tradition for Micro and I. I told him he could stay with me or go ahead but we went together and did 20.50. The good news is my return is progressing very well, the bad news is the hip had a big hissy fit about 500m from the end but we finished in style. I hobbled off to the medical tent but the physio assured me I'd be ok for the Half.


Monday 14/5 - Water paddle while Gnome swam

Tuesday 15/5 - Massage which left me feeling bruised for a couple of days.

Wednesday 16/5 - Saw Dr Pain and he says my hip will hurt but I can't damage it anymore by doing the Half and that he will probably be in the physio tent, so go and see for some tender care at the end. (Yeh right!!) Short bike session with some AT intervals thrown in.

Thursday 17/5- Paddle with Wildthing in the morning. We had a great catchup and obeyed my taper. Rclub at night and Tim was ill - so I "ran" it and also ran in part of it. I did the 2x2k but the hip was so sore I had to stop there. The others then did 15 mins of fartlek of my determining.

Friday 18/5 + Saturday 19/5 - Rest days. I spoke with my sis-in-law and we discussed a good use of medications and my hip is feeling significantly better. I'm definitely a starter for the SMH Half tomorrow.

Hurts so good....

Well, one week after I was given the go ahead to start running (and after more than 3 months on the sidelines) I've run three times this week. Actually, 'run' is not really the right word for it - more like shuffle/walk/shuffle/gasp/walk... :-) :-)

It's a bit of a shock to the system. I've swum, cycled or walked almost every day for the last two months, but there's nothing like a little bit of running to find you out! On Monday I started with a walk 200m, jog 200m for 30 minutes. Surprisingly weary by the time I got home, even though I never raised a sweat. Wednesday, I extended it to 300m jog, 200m walk for 5km. Generally OK.

Thursday night at Run Club was a track session, which was just tailor made for me because while everyone else was running around and around and around, I could break it up between walking and running and still feel part of the group. I have a bit of a funny style at the moment - because of the weakness in my bad leg, my left foot slaps the ground at every step - but I think that I'm going to have to be listening to flick, clunk, flick, clunk, flick, clunk for a while to come...

I was pretty tired and a bit sore by the end of the session, but I'm feeling better today. Hammy's a bit tender, so I don't know whether to just swim tomorrow to give it a bit more rest or to have a gentle jog around the block(s) to remind it that it had better get used to this running lark! :-) Dunno. See how I feel, I guess.

Still, it's good to be back.

Gnome

Stunned

After a solid week of strength work which included 5x2min hills at firm pace and 4x5min grinding on the bike plus other stuff, we got to Striders 10k on Saturday. Secretly I thought I could probably do 55ish so decided to hang near the pacer. However, he positioned himself way at the back, so Craig and I moved forward a bit closer to the start. Found a nice pace straight away and never got caught by the 55 pacer. I couldn't believe it when I crossed the line at 54.16, a 2.48 improvement on the Domain time.

I backed up for a PT session later in the day to be informed we were doing hills to simulate when I felt tired for the second lap of the Half course. So 5 mins in a grindy gear on the windtrainer and then it was run 2xLiliyfield Rd hill. This was followed with riding 2 x Lilyfield Rd hill and you guessed it, running another 2. Man, my quads were burning and the legs quite shakey. A couple of upper body circuits and a walk and I was ready to head home and eat!

Yesterday I saw Dr Pain about some little niggles which he elbowed out for me and today I had an easy 2 hours on the program. It was suggested I do it on a flat course but nothing is flat out here so I chose the closest thing and ran along Pennant Hills Rd to Hornsby and return. Gnome drove past me on his way to work about a k from the end. He rang later to ask how I went because he said I looked strong. I was stunned to tell him it was one of those "good" runs. 19.5k and av 6.10 pace. I still don't know where it came from.

TA

Happy Birthday to us!

This is a celebration post, and we've got at least three things to celebrate! First up, this blog is two years old. I'm not sure what we were expecting when we started it two years ago, but I think that we got it pretty right in the opening sentence of the first post.

This blog is basically about our running and the people that we meet through running (and the muscles that we pull by running :-)

How true did that turn out to be? There's plenty of running talk, and plenty (sadly) of pulled-muscle talk, and also plenty of talk about the wonderful people that running has brought into our lives - so thank you to all of you who have enriched us over the last couple of years.

Our second celebration point is that I went to see the neurosurgeon yesterday, and I've been given a get-out-of-gaol-free card. As of today, I can start to run again! I have a 5% chance of rupturing the disk again (slightly higher if I partake in high impact activities such as running), but as he said, I could also rupture it rolling over in bed. Now, seeing that running and rolling over in bed are two of my favourite activities, I don't think that I have much chance! :-) :-)

One thing is for sure though. I'm going to have to take it easy getting back into it. At the Striders 10k at North Head this morning, I jogged the 700m down to my marshalling post at the roundabout, and it damn near killed me. The jog back an hour and a half later left me puffing - and I think I was doing about 8 minute pace! :-)

Speaking of Striders, that leads me on to our third celebration point. Tiger Angel's running continues on its upward trajectory. Between her first and second 10ks of the year, she took off 1:44. Between the second and today, she took off another 2:48, leaving her only 2:45 short of her all-time pb, set almost 2 years ago before she got sick. Some things in life are tough, but TA makes it so easy for me to be so proud of her.

Gnome