TA and the Gnome

One golden day

2009-10-05T13:49:00.006+11:00

The Prologue.
The years of training, the trials of preparation, the tests of courage, the indefinable lows and the indescribable highs, and it all comes down to this moment...

The story, as you all know, starts long before this day. When Susie first decided to get a little fitter, her goal was but a simple one - to be able to strap herself into a snow board and stand up without assistance. Goal achieved, the sainted Matt casually inquired "have you ever thought about doing a triathlon?", and thus the seed was sown. Skip forward a few years, and I'll quote the lady herself. "Four years ago when I was starting to get sick and could only stand for 15 mins at a time, a friend asked what I wanted to do. I said one day I want to do a half ironman. Back then I didn't realise it would take so long to get better... ".

The Location.
The Gold Coast Half IronMan Triathlon is run in a little place called Calypso Bay - a district that can barely scrape together more than one millionaire per 10 sq metres. The squalor and the rundown facilities were appalling, but when there's a job to be done, one must rise above ones circumstances.

Calypso Bay

The Start.
It seems that many of Australia's triathletes traveled to Queensland for this race, with over a 1000 competitors in the distance event alone. Not only was there a large contingent from Susie's tri club to lend verbal support, but good friends Cheri (aka 'kb') and Rob were there too.

If it's good enough for Michael Phelps...
Susie has a quiet drag on a (ventolin) bong.

The time immediately prior to a big race can be very lonely, but "The swim start was delayed by 30mins and kb and I sat on a jetty chatting while we waited and got rid of all our nerves".

Mermaids

Seals

The Swim
"I felt good in the swim and when I saw 36:xx on my watch as I came up the ramp I was stunned as at best I'd hoped for 45".

I have to say that I almost missed Susie's exit from the water, as I wasn't expecting her to be out that quickly either. As you can see from the number of bikes in this next photo of transition #1, there were a lot of people still in the water.

The Bike
The bike leg is 90km, and that provided plenty of time for the sun to warm up and the winds to rise. "I felt strong the whole way on the bike but the final lap was a bit harder as we were now into the 40+k winds. I was hoping for a 3:30 bike leg, so 3:35 in the wind was great." If you squint hard enough at Susie's bike (the red one to her right in the photo above), you'll see a white water bottle mounted on the handlebars as well as two down on the frame. The white one has a straw poking up out of it so that the rider can drink from it without moving from the aero position. Unfortunately, at the first drink station when Susie went to refill it on the move, the strap holding it in place gave way - goodbye main drink bottle! Luckily, the other two were sufficient to get her through to the next station and thence the end.

The Run
Transition #2 went smoothly, even if the exit didn't. "Another lap around on the transition and it was out to the run. In typical style I tripped over a gutter and face planted but I think the spectators were more worried than I was. I just got up and kept going." Another close squint at the photo below will reveal Susie's red badge of courage streaming down her left leg. What you can't see are her hands and left elbow.

Run Leg - did I mention the 1000 competitors?

It isn't really apparent in the photo, but this part of the run leg is 3 x 3km alongside one of the grassed (dirt) parking areas. Thus, as competitors from earlier events were leaving, their cars threw up clouds of dust which the wind turned into our very own private dust storm. Given Susie's asthma issues, I have to say that this was the point of maximum concern for me. Time-wise, there was no issue with finishing, just as long as she didn't end up in the back of an ambulance with breathing difficulties. It appears that Susie didn't share my concerns. "I managed to slot into a steady pace straightway and kept it going for the whole run leg doing the 2.30 exactly as I'd hoped."

The Finish
"I was so happy and excited to cross the line in 6.44.08 when 6.45 was my 'only on a good day could I do this' goal".

And so we return to the prologue. Any Zen master worth his salt will tell you that it is the journey that matters, not the destination. Any good photographer worth his salt will tell you that there are moments that encapsulates all those years of effort, those moments when all the pain is justified. This was one of those...

The end
is just the beginning

An accidental marathon

2009-04-20T22:17:00.006+10:00

How can a marathon be accidental? I think I've found a way. After my disaster in last year's Canberra Marathon, I promised myself (and anyone who'd listen) that never again would I try the Six Foot / Canberra double. It's just too hard on an old bloke's body. Consequently, my goals for this year were set in stone:

Finish 6ft in good condition (a pb would be a bonus), and
Go sub 3:30 in the Melbourne Marathon in October.

Any other races (halves, 10k, the odd triathlon, whatever) were all just training for those two. History has recorded that the first was ticked off in fine, albeit slightly painful, style.

In the month since 6ft, I've taken it relatively easy, running about 50k per week, pretty much all in 10k blocks. Prior to last Saturday the furthest I'd run was 11k, but on Saturday I decided to see how I'd go over 30... As it was, the call of the toilet truncated the run to 27k, but it was a very comfortable 27 over a hilly course at a steady 5:15 pace, and it got me thinking. 5:15 pace equates to a 3:45 marathon. My PB is 3:43. Surely I could keep that pace going, and possibly even go a little faster. We were going to Canberra anyway to watch Caro, Julia, Jacqui & Barb (from Run Club) all run their first marathons, so... Maybe. Surely. Should I? Shouldn't I? What about? Ummm...

There were a few things to sort out, so it wasn't until Tuesday that we made a final decision. The best part of leaving everything to the end like that is that there's no time for nerves, and there's no time to build up expectations. I'm not sure that I've ever done a race where I was less concerned about the outcome. I decided (after about 2 second's thought) that I'd start on a 5:00 pace (3:30 finish) and see what happened. If I ran well then great, and if I blew up then I could walk home. No hassles either way :-)

Julia, Jacqui, yours truly and Caro before the start (Barb was nowhere to be found :-) )

The first 10k was uneventful. I found an old mate of Tiger Angel's who I only ever see at races and we chatted our way up and around Parliament House - he describing his night in hospital after last month's Iron Man and me describing Tiger Angel's toe operation - but after coming past the wonderful CR cheer squad at cowbell corner and heading out over the lake, I started to detect an increasing need for some sit-down conveniences. A short respite there cost me 90 seconds, but no worries; 90 seconds can be recovered over 30k just by upping the tempo by 3 sec/k. No problem. In fact, I recovered a little more quickly than that, and was back on schedule by the second time around cowbell corner (26k). Still feeling fresh and untroubled, I ran on happily until, heading out over the lake, I started to detect an increasing need for...

Yep, same conveniences, 2nd lap :-( At least this time it only cost 60 sec, but this time I had to make up 60 sec in the 12 remaining k. Hmmm. That's 5 sec/k this time. Not to worry. I can do that. In fact, at this point I suddenly realised that I could do a whole lot better than 5 sec/k. I was feeling fresh and I only had 12k to go, so why not throw caution to the wind and put some effort in.

Up to Black Mtn and back down. Still good. Across the lake. Still good. Across the front of Old Parliament house. To my surprise, still good. And all the while watching the splits crumble. 30 sec ahead. 50 sec. 1:30 ahead. And still feeling good. Amazing.

If I felt good then, it was nothing compared to the lift I got from Tiger Angel and the rest of the CR cheer squad as I came through Cowbell Corner for the last time. A final sprint down the last k and I crossed the line in 3:28:17 (3:27:49 net), well under my year's goal of 3:30, and 15 minutes under my previous PB. Best of all, I felt in good enough nick to walk back down to Cowbell Corner to do my share of cheering the girls on, and then wander down the course and run with Caro for her last 2k. What an awesome way to finish an awesome day!

Caro and me at Cowbell Corner

So, what's the wrap up? Firstly, it was such a privilege to be with the girls and watch their nerves and doubts of the morning turn into the elation (and a certain quantum of pain!) of the afternoon. It's an achievement that will last a lifetime, and only you know just what you put in to achieve it. Regardless of the congratulations that others may offer, you know in your own souls just what it is that you have done.

Hail the conquering heroes! :-)

As for my self, I ran the last 10k in 45 minutes. That is such a confidence booster for Melbourne. With focussed and careful training and good conditions, who knows what may be possible? Whatever the weather, I want to know that when I run into the MCG, I will have done the absolute best that I possibly could. That is my goal now.

Gnome

This post was going to be...

2009-03-28T22:52:00.003+11:00

...a report on tiger angel's wonderful Olympic Tri at Geelong, but alas it is a week early... :-(

Tiger angel dislocated her little toe on Thursday night, and due to complications from foot surgery she had 30+ years ago, she had to have an emergency operation and she now has a wire sticking out the end of her toe. Consequently, no driving for 6 weeks, no run/ride/swim for a similar length of time, and obviously no Geelong. Still, it won't affect her major goal races later in the year, so it's just a setback, not a closed door.

Ah well...

Gnome

Oops. Small correction.

2009-03-19T22:41:00.003+11:00

Sadly (though I'd love it to be true), I wasn't entirely clear in my last post. When I said "...to be presented by my beautiful tiger angel with my medal and a 4:24 pb...", I meant a time 4 minutes and 24 seconds faster than last year, not (sob!) a time of 4 hours and 24 minutes. :-(

Real time was 4:54:06 - which I am totally happy with, no doubt about that! :-)

I still wouldn't mind doing 4:24 though...

6ft 2009

2009-03-17T21:02:00.008+11:00

Hi Ho! This is just a verbatim repeat of the report on CoolRunning for my records (oh, plus a few photos).

_____________________________________________________

To be or not to be, that is the question;

Four months of good training, and it all came down to a gut bug. Should I start? Can I finish? What's the impact of an 'interrupted' carbo load? Dunno.

By Saturday morning I was feeling OK, and tiger angel's top-notch home-brew creamed rice went down a treat at 4:30am. Donned the skirt, applied liberal quantities of body glide and headed down to the buses.

Brick & yours truly hamming it up for the cameras.

The run/walk down Nellies was treacherous. I heard at least six people fall over, so I dread to think of how much damage was done across the whole field. I mostly got a clear run from there to the Coxes. 3 minutes up on last year at Megalong, 6:30 up by the river. Scared that I'd gone too fast, but I felt ok.

Stepping down Nellies Glen

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Sadly, the 'ok' was to become a thing of the past. The previous week's gastric contortions started to return, with gut cramping big time. Nothing for it but suffer in silence and get on with it.

I don't know why, but the Lemon Tree Yards is my favourite part of the race. I love that view across the paddock as you come over the crest of the hill. If my hazy recollection is right, it was along here that I ran with vStar for a while; our pink skirts attracting the odd comment. All in good fun.

Luckily, the gut ache wasn't as bad when walking, so I didn't lose much time on Mini Mini and Pluvi. Still 6 min up at Pluvi. My memory of Black Range from last year was running strongly and overtaking lots of people. Not so this year. The strong run became an ugly shuffle, and the passer became the passee. Terry and Maggot both introduced themselves as they flew past. It's only now, with hindsight that I realise that I was running essentially the same speed as last year (still 5:30 up at the deviation); it's just that I was running in a faster wave this year. That's a trap for young players that I'll have to remember. It would have been so easy to give up and back off...

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

By the time I got to deviation, I was longing to be able to vomit, but it wasn't going to happen. RunBare's girls were fantastic there, yelling and cheering everyone who went past. I wish I could have given them some recognition in return, but nothing intelligible would come out (Sorry girls! ). Things really started to go bad through here, and I must apologise profusely to any who were running down-wind. If there's an unexpected gap in the results, it's probably because I took out half the field behind me! Still, it's an ill wind that blows nobody good (so to speak), and 25 minutes of rumbles and explosions later I reached the road, now only 2:30 up, but feeling a whole lot more comfortable.

Starting to settle; a few km from the end

The run from here was where I lost it last year, and I was keen to have a red-hot crack this time. The cramp bears had been nibbling for ages, but they'd never really got their teeth in and it was just a matter of keep going and see if I could outrun them. I couldn't, but I got close. They finally got me just at the top of the paved section, bit down on my right calf and wouldn't let go. I remember hop/running down the path (being overtaken - that hurt more than the cramp) and yelling NO NO NO NO as people went past. The cheering was getting louder all the time, and the tsunami from the CR squad as I came around the corner was awesome. 6ft is not much of a spectator race, but you lot really make up for lost time at the end!

Last year, I cramped at the bottom of the stairs and hobbled across the line. This year, there was nothing going to stop me celebrating, so I ended up a weird part-hobbling, part-pumping, entirely exultant, totally emotional, laughing, blubbering mess, to be presented by my beautiful tiger angel with my medal and a 4:24 pb.

Getting a bit sideways in the finishing chute.

To Kevin and the rest of the crew, well done! Enjoy your retirement Kev (though I can't imagine you ever taking it easy).
To the wonderful folk in the Striders 6ft Training Group, thanks for making 4 hours on a Saturday morning seem so much fun, rain, hail or shine.
And to the rest of the pink skirters, we done good, eh?

Getting excited!

2009-03-01T21:43:00.003+11:00

Blogger Dashboard tells me that the last time I posted was Nov 16th last year. How time flies when we're both active and uninjured. Too busy training and enjoying it to have time to post. :-)

Just to bring you up to date, tiger angel's body (and hence training) is going from strength to strength. A renewed focus on triathlons over the last 6 months has translated into a lot more time in the pool and on the bike (though not at the same time, I hasten to add) and a little less running. This in turn has resulted in her first Olympic length tri in Canberra last month, and another in Geelong next month.

About half way through the Oly @ Canberra

TA did the sprint at Kurnell today, and despite them lengthening the run course to bring it closer to the advertised 5k, she still ripped more than 8 minutes off her pb (and that was with no taper at all!). It was an absolutely awesome performance. I'm so proud of her, not just for the time that she did, but for the effort and perserverence that she's put in over a few tough years in order to get where she is now. 2009 is going to be a fun year! :-)

As for me, I've just come off the back of my biggest month ever (307km, and Feb is a short month) and I'm feeling well. The 5k on Saturday was my first time back near the pb (8 sec off) since 6ft training got heavy, so it'll be nice to see if it holds up at the 10k next weekend - and even nicer if I can hang it all together up in the mountains in just 14 days time. I even have my pink skirt at the ready, so if anyone else wants to sponsor me for doing 6ft in a Skirt, click here and go for it.

Gnome

Walking on Sunshine

2008-11-16T21:26:00.003+11:00

Nepean Triathlon, 2008.

16th October, 2008. A date to remember. Not only the date of tiger angel's longest tri yet, but the first time in many years (if ever) that everything came together just right. The weather was perfect (cool & overcast, but no wind), the training has been the most consistent it's been for years, and

she just blitzed it!!

I've never seen TA so calm heading into a race. All the normal indicators just weren't there. She ate well in the days before. She didn't sleep badly. (I won't detail some of the other normal nervous indicators, but they weren't there either :-) ). There were some concerns regarding recalcitrant joints and ligaments, but essentially it was all calm on the western front.

Calm, that is, until she unleashed the storm. Because of the way Nepean is run with the girls starting ahead of the first men (by the difference in time between the leading man and woman from the previous year) plus my age group starting in the last wave, TA was already on the bike before I even got in the water. As she flew past, she called out "19:30" and I let out such a war whoop that the fellow next to me suggested that I save my energy for the race! (TA was expecting something like 24 minutes, and that 19:30 is by far her fastest 1k yet).

When our wave was finally released, I meandered my way down the course; my patented navigation method of watching the shoreline suffering a fatal flaw called "lack of concentration". Every once in a while I'd remember to look for the shore, only to find it either disappearing in the distance or approaching with extreme rapidity, neither of which were the desired outcome. Note to self. Next year, let's try to switch the brain on before the bike leg.

Transition went really smoothly, and on the bike I managed to catch tiger angel just as we were coming back into the regatta centre. Sadly (for me), I was only on my first lap where as she was finishing her last. Her average speed on the bike was 28.7, again way ahead of expected. I felt really good on the bike this year, so I was surprised to find that I only made a marginal improvement on last year's time. Still, I managed to move up about 80 positions (out of 600) , which only goes to show just how far behind I was after the swim :-)

The run leg was always going to be fun. I passed tiger angel (again!) near the start of my first (her second) lap, chatting away with some new best friend. (How can you compete in your longest ever tri and do better than best-possible times, and still manage to meet someone and discover that they're good friends of your sister-in-law?? It's a skill that never ceases to amaze me). From there, I just set to the task of hunting down anyone with "M49" on their calf and enjoying being able to run again. A 43:29 run moved me up another 130-odd positions - did I mention that I like the run leg? - and I caught my last victim about 250m from the finish.

I ended up taking about 7 minutes off last year's time, but was much more excited about tiger angel's 2:26:38 - her ecstatic goal was 2:35:00! She is now securely anchored by a short string to stop her floating away... :-)

I'm walking on sunshine, oh oh,
I'm walking on sunshine, oh oh,
I'm walking on sunshine, oh oh,
and don't it feel GOOD!

Gnome

A good weekend all round

2008-11-02T22:28:00.003+11:00

Now that was a nice weekend for the tiger angel / gnome household. I ran the last of the Striders' 10k series for the year, while TA had her first club triathlon out at Penriff (at 500m/20k/5k, a nice lead in to the Nepean Tri in two weeks time). Yep, TA has finally gone and joined a tri club after all these years :-)

I felt pretty good about the 10k on Saturday morning; not expecting a pb (not on those hills), but hoping to get within a bull's bellow of it. Hey presto, that's exactly what I did, running 41:10 - a 40 sec course pb and only 12 sec away from my previously-unassailable North Head pb. Cool!

Tiger angel, on the other hand, felt much more nervous about her return to tris, but then it just wouldn't be my beloved without a few pre-race nerves :-). As ever, she had nothing to be worried about, not only finishing minutes faster than the last one she did eight months ago, but improving in every discipline too. Transitions were slick; the legs were smooth; good times to continue...

I battled a flat battery in my camera to record as much of the event as possible. One photo was absolutely brilliant - perfectly composed, great angle, showing a powerful TA cresting a hill - except that it was carefully focussed on the trees in the distant background...

Ah well. This was the best I could manage.

Gnome

Keeping up to date

2008-10-12T23:42:00.002+11:00

Trying to keep in the habit of posting, (but it'll be v. brief :) ).

We went out to the Western Sydney CR5k yesterday, both intending on a relatively easy run. TA was going straight to swim squads afterwards (I suggested that we ride out to get the whole training set in) and I had the Strider's Internal Half today. Well, it seems that neither of us can resist a race, so my 22 minute goal turned into 20:35 (still nice and comfortable - I'm not totally stupid!) and TA's 30 minutes turned into 27:30.

The strider's half is a handicap race, and it has to be the most terrifying race I've ever run. Apart from the fact that it is done on the Lane Cove course (think hills and more hills, more than the normal 10k course and then we do it twice), but all the fast runners are behind you and intent on hunting you down. Add to that that there are 5 turnaround points in the course, so you can see them all getting closer and closer. Absolutely terrifying for someone who hates to be caught.

Still, it's an ill wind that blows no good, and the terror inspired me to a 94:55 finish and a ~90 second negative split. That's my second best time on a half, and the best on a certified course, so I'm pretty happy, but I don't recall ever being quite so spent at the end of a race. Funny how a bit of Bathurst-watching this afternoon turned into a bit of eyelid examination instead... :-)

Gnome

Oops! It has been a while, hasn't it...

2008-09-30T22:35:00.002+10:00

We got a little prod from the foot-sore Jen_runs the other day suggesting that another blog update may be in order. Funny how time gets away from you when things are going smoothly. Having just discovered that our last post was before the City2Surf, I might dispense with the blow-by-blow training account and just list a few highlights.

Highlight 1 - Tiger angel's first C2S in 3 years, the week after her first Lane Cove 10k in the same period. Here's to many more!

Highlight 2 - a C2S PB for me (Gnome) after only being back running for 6 weeks. Very surprised!

Highlight 3 - A very happy run at the Sydney Half - third fastest time ever for me (and the fastest on a certified course).

Highlight 4 - Tiger Angel's first Sydney half in (you guessed it) three years, and the first in a long time where she didn't want to give it all away in frustration (AND we got to cross the finish line together, but the stoopid finish-line photographers managed to make the wonderful appear ordinary. Ah well...)

Highlight 5 - CR5k last week. Tiger angel continued the downwards pressure on her time (trending down very nicely), and I broke 20 again (19:51 - a P-2nd-B).

That's enough highlights for now. I said to TA the other day that I wish people would stop saying "gee, you've come back quickly". After all, it's over six months since I broke down. As far as I'm concerned, there's been nothing quick about it. Her response was simply "yes, but it's only been 6 months". She has a way with words (and being right), does my girl. :-)

Gnome

Good Weekend

2008-08-03T22:22:00.002+10:00

We started the countdown to City2Surf with the Strider's 10k at Lane Cove yesterday. For those of you who feel that tiger angel's travails have dragged on an on, think on this. Yesterday morning was her first race at Lane Cove for three years! That's a long time to be thinking 'just next month'.

TA's breathing problems of the last couple of months appear to be getting sorted too. The doctor has prescribed a particular puffer that seems to have made a big difference. She completed that race yesterday with very little coughing, which is a far cry from her desperate inability to draw breath after Woodford 2 Glenbrook. What's more, she completed it multi-minutes faster than she expected (55:56) . I had a good run too, coming in about as fast I thought possible (44:30) which is always pleasing. So, we're both a fair way off pb, but headed in the right direction :-)

This coming week is going to be a light one for both of us - it's that stage in the up-up-up-down cycle, but it also ties in well with not being too leg-weary for Sunday. Lot's of fun coming our way (well, us and 69,998 other folk :-) ).

Gnome

What was I thinking....?

2008-07-20T22:24:00.003+10:00

OK, so maybe doing 3/4 of a lap of Quarry Rd was not the ideal reintroduction to running. :-) The next day I felt like I'd just run a marathon. Quads ached, I didn't want to get out of bed, all that sort of thing. :-) Anyhow, by Wednesday I was ready to go again. Alas, my planned 40minute stroll through the bush turned into an hour, courtesy of a wrong turn, but at least it showed me that 10k was possible without problems. Added to that, we had a great session at Run Club on Thursday night - a hills/tempo/hills sandwich - which had me looking forward to a 'long' run on Saturday morning with surprising anticipation.

We have a loop from home which is a pretty good approximation to the City to Surf. 14k (of course) and a good mix of short, sharp hills and two long grinding ones. I carefully avoided looking at my watch and just ran on feel, keeping things nice and aerobic. I had the advantage on the longest hill of a particularly complex Santana song on the iPod; by the time I had worked out the rhythmic structure, I was at the top! :-) Anyhow, I was really pleased to be home in 72 minutes without getting overly stressed.

Tiger angel's training continues its gentle upward trajectory as well. It's really lovely to see her doing what she wants, when she wants, instead of being limited by injuries and medical conditions as she has been for so long now. This week included PT & swim squads on Tuesday, Run Club Thursday, PT & swim squads (again!) on Saturday, and then today we rode out along the M7 for 70 minutes. I've decided that tiger angel is someone who benefits from a warm up, as we did the up-hill return half faster than the down-hill outward half! Lovely ride, lovely day, but my numb bum tells me that no way is this little black duck ever going to do long tri's. I'll stick to 6ft and leave the HIM's to TA. Seems fair :-)

Gnome

The long slow recovery gains pace

2008-07-13T20:37:00.002+10:00

I'm feeling very positive tonight (hence actually getting around to blogging for the first time in ages :-) ). The first few attempts at walk/running were not outright successes, but each session left me with some hope that things would get better. I managed a good, even (and pain-free) run at the CR5k with Sook and Running Angel, and then promptly came down with a thoroughly gross lurgy.

Thinking that I was over the worst, we made a (possibly ill-advised) appearance at the striders 10k the following week, but I only got through 5k before pulling the plug. Tiger angel stopped at the same point with breathing difficulties again, but when Wildthing came past she decided to start again and accompany her for the second 5k (no further breathing problems this time). A further week of being laid low meant no more attempts at running for me, so yesterday (Sat) afternoon I headed out for a gentle run around the local streets, keeping it as level as living in the Hills district allows. I felt good for the first 6 k, but the last k and a half left me feeling decidedly old. I was very surprised (and very happy) to find that I'd averaged 5:10s for the run. (Not bad considering my total running since the hip cracked added up to a princely 28k! :-) ).

Tiger angel had a long run on the schedule for today, but she really wasn't looking forward to doing it on her own, so I suggested that she do a lap and a half of Quarry Rd, meaning I could accompany her for a little while and then walk, and she'd see me each time she passed. As it was, I ended up running 3/4 of a lap with her (Dural end to Hornsby and half way back) before my quads decided that they'd had enough. She continued on while I walked till she got back to me, and then we walked together to the end. It was a really nice day together, but my quads are definitely going to be reminding me all about it in the morning.

It's only 4 weeks now till the City to Surf, but I'm comfortable that I'll be able to cover the distance without any difficulty, and I don't really care what speed I do as I know that I'll always be able to use Striders results to get a Red bib if I don't get under the 75 minutes. There's no distance in my legs now, but that'll all start to change over the next few months. Happy.

Gnome

Woodford to Glenbrook

2008-06-30T07:45:00.003+10:00

Two weeks ago I was in a training run and my HR was reading above my effort. FSF said "you'll have a cold by Monday " and I just laughed. He was wrong - I had bronchitis by Monday! and was out of action completely for about 10 days. A couple of 5k runs (which left me coughing) kinda said I'd be ok for W2G but just to take it easy. So on Sunday morning, after picking up Brick and Gogirl we headed to the mountains. Thanks to Gnome being our chauffeur, we drove straight to the start at Glenbrook with about 30 mins to spare. Fortunately when I decided to join the toilet queue, I found my running buddy, Amy, just ahead of me and I didn't need to search for her amongst the heaps of CoolRunners and Striders who were there. I have to admit I was a bit scared of how the day would go but knew I could walk if needed. A quick kiss goodbye and I left Gnome with Emjay, Helmet, Nick and young Tim to go and have coffee while we raced.

We took the first few ks easy as advised and didn't worry about people going past us. From about 6k we caught up with some and started to make some little gains. Around 9k we were running near about 4 other girls and kept changing places over the next few ks. At about 15k this really negative fellow who'd been near us for a while, barged through the middle of us without warning and in my attempt to suggest he warn people of his passing I went flat on my face. I got up quickly with some new beaut grazes but also, a new determination to get pass him if only for safety reasons. From about here, Amy and I stopped using the water stations and just used what we had in our fuel belts. This enabled us to keep up the momentum and ignore the little aches that were starting. I have to admit for the last 5ks my back ribs were aching and I knew my lungs were being tested. We ended up having a really good run over the second half maintaining sub 6min k's and passed at least 20 runners to finish 2.41.52. (and beat that man!!).

Our time was so much better than I expected after being sick but I had a really scary reminder when I stopped at the end and realised I couldn't breathe and was wheezing so badly a first aid person came and took me to the tent. Fortunately sitting allowed my breath to return, so they patched up my grazes instead. Amy and I took our shoes off and cooled our feet on the wet grass and then laughed as we both discovered that after my fall, secretly we had both decided to beat that fellow home. A few minutes later the other 4 girls who'd been near us came through and delighted in telling us that they had beaten him home, too. Maybe we should all thank him for being so painful.

We then enjoyed a lovely lunch with some CR friends and celebrated with chocolate of course.

This was my first every trail race and my longest distance ever and I feel really pleased with how it went. I just wish my body wasn't so sore today and that Gnome would stop laughing at me :-)

First attempt at a run

2008-06-14T17:45:00.002+10:00

After a few more days walking and cycling, I attempted a run/walk (50m on, 150m off) on Thursday night. It felt good for the first few intervals, but progressively my hip started to whinge at each step. I pulled the plug after 8 intervals, feeling a bit sore and a bit depressed. However, there were no after effects on Friday and I went for an hour's walk today with absolutely no issues, so I guess I'll give it another go in a couple of days. Until then, it's back on the bike.

Gnome

Back on my feet

2008-06-08T21:01:00.002+10:00

I went for my first walk yesterday (1/2 an hour, 2.5k) and the hip came through fine (can't say much for the rest of me though :-) ). Repeated the dose today (same time, but 3.3k this time - the dog didn't know what had hit him!).

Last Thursday I rode to work in the morning (that's the downhill bit) and felt really tired afterwards. I was intending to ride home again, but as it was pouring rain and TA had to take Micro to footy training at the Uni, she picked me up and we went to the Uni swimming pool instead. The pool is heated (slightly warmed?), but sheeting rain and a blowing gale made the task of getting in interesting, to say the least. As usual, tiger angel swam all over me, doing 2k for my 1.3. I wish I looked like her when I swam...

We both entered the C2S during the week. I don't expect that I'll be in anything approaching racing condition by then, but C2S is always about the atmosphere, not the racing. TA's got a green bib and I've got a red one. Maybe with the timing chips, I can hang back so we can run together. Hmm. That'd be nice :-)

Tiger angel is likely to be doing her first Woodford to Glenbrook, so it'll be driver/cheerer/coffee drinker duty for me that day. Hope it's a nice one for her.

Depending on how the weather is tomorrow, I might be up for a ride while TA is off on her long run. Hopefully I can do a few longer walks this week without the legs complaining too much, and then maybe trying a run/walk next weekend. Onwards and upwards.

Gnome

Great Nosh 2008

2008-06-02T17:50:00.003+10:00

Late last year I got Gnome to take me on a couple of bush runs and then in January I did the Party Pooper option of Beyond the Black stump
and really enjoyed it. So after tri season was over, I decided I'd like to do some other bush races and Great Nosh
appeared on the calendar. As many of you know I've been working very hard to manage a hip issue and it's improving so I decided I'd give the run a go. I started the race with Emjay and Amy right at the back as I needed a late toilet stop before the start!

The run follows a gentle meandering narrow track over the first 5ks. I did manage to roll my ankle twice in this area but just worked on trying to land it safely and the pain subsided. We headed up under the Roseville Bridge and Amy and I took the left side path and ended up moving ahead of Emjay. We crossed the bridge and as we ran down the other side we waved to Gnome who was taking photos. From here there was a lot more uphill, the track got really narrow and there were times of scrambling up rocks and hopping over little creeks. At times we appeared out of the bush to run behind houses and then back into bush. We caught up with Nihao about here. Over the last few ks we ran along a wide trail covered in mulch which you just sunk into then back into the bush for the last k and finally onto the oval to finish in 1.57.23 watch time. Poor Gnome saw Nihao and got some good finishing shots of her but wasn't expecting me to be a second or two behind her :-).

Afterwards the RunClub group headed out for brunch and dissected races. A nice end to a good run.

3 legs bad, 2 legs good...

2008-05-22T22:53:00.002+10:00

I went to the Doc this morning, and I'm finally off the crutches. It's really, really weird to be walking on two legs again. I keep reaching for the crutches every time I get up from a chair, and simple things like going up stairs are just strange... Still, I guess that will pass pretty quickly :-)

I'm allowed to start swimming and riding again, but walking (as in 'going for walks', not just 'walking around the house') is still off the agenda for a couple of weeks. Apparently, your bones get weaker when you don't load them, so after 6 weeks of no load, my bones need some loading before I start to hammer them again.

After that, it's back to the old walk/run routine, and when I'm up to running half an hour then I have to go back and see him in full running regalia so he can see if there's some underlying cause for the break (whenever anything goes wrong, it's always my right leg...).

Tiger angel's niggles continue their orbit around her body, but there's some good signs that things are starting to settle down again and the training is starting to pay off in better session results too. It's all good... :-)

Hopalong Gnome

Backing off a bit

2008-05-11T21:45:00.002+10:00

For the first time in a number of years, we didn't make the trek to the domain for the Mother's Day run today. This race has become a bit of a tradition in our family. The first year we ran it, all the kids agreed to come and join in. Since then, Micro has run it with his mum every year and it's been their special race.

This time last year, tiger angel was preparing for her soon-to-be-best-ever half marathon, and ran the MD race both for Micro and also as a final hit-out. Unfortunately, her hip chucked a hissy-fit about 500m from the finish and the rest is history. She still ran the half the next week (in a personal worst time and a lot of pain), and is only this year starting to recover from the damage.

As I mentioned a few posts back, we are both entered for the SMH half again this year, and even though I am obviously not going to run it now, it has been tiger angel's main goal. As she is still dealing with some of the same hip issues, she's sacrificed a few lesser goals (such as the TriNSW Club Champs) so as to best optimise her chances of doing the half. A few weeks back, she decided that, tradition and family bonding notwithstanding, the Mother Day run would have to go too.

Alas, all for naught, as last week her long run aggravated all the same pain points and it was clear that she just wasn't going to last the distance. There's a structural weakness there (the result of an accident 4 years ago) that has to be constantly strengthened, and at the moment it isn't strong enough. As she's a whole lot more intelligent than this little Gnome, she's not going to blindly push on, but rather chose the path of re-evaluation and re-direction.

For the new few months, her aim is to build a better base with all the weaker bits sorted and strengthened. There'll only be one swim and one bike session each week combined with three run sessions and lots of other exercises. "Goal" races are right out of the picture. The aim will be to just enjoy exercising again. If a race comes along that looks like fun and appears to be do-able, then it'll be run. If not, then not!

Given that my re-entry to the world of exercise (when it comes) is going to require a long slow ramp up, I'm looking forward to being able to 'play' with my beloved again without the pressure of major races looming over everything we do. As always, there's a lot to look forward to :-)

Gnome

It's hip to be square

2008-04-26T18:37:00.002+10:00

Latest from the doc. I have to stay on the crutches for another another 4 weeks (6 in total) and I'm not even allowed to go swimming during that time (Hrumph!). After that, I can start walking a bit and when that's going OK then I can start a run/walk return (again). With a bit of luck I'll be trotting around by the June CR5k / July Striders 10k.

Tiger angel decided to give the Tri NSW club champs a miss for this year as it clashed with her mum's 80th birthday celebrations, and then decided to still skip it when mum changed her party to this weekend. At this stage, some more open water (surf) experience is desired before she races in it.

We are both entered for the SMH half (yet another year we can't run it together), but TA will be there with bells on, and hopefully be somewhat more comfortable this year than last. :-) If any male feels like impersonating a Gnome for a day (and promises not to run faster than 100min) then I'm sure I could manage to absent-mindedly drop my bib and timing chip just as you were walking past... :-)

Gnome

And the winner is...

2008-04-20T14:28:00.002+10:00

Me! :-) It all starts to become clear, but let's start at the beginning.

Rule number one for dumb runners - if you're carrying an injury for a while, go to a sports doctor for a diagnosis. Physios (even the world's best like our Dr Pain) treat problems, not diagnose them. I've been carrying this hip issue for a few months, and it's been clear to all of us that it was an inflammation or tendon problem, so that's what we've been treating (and that's why it was fine to run at Canberra).

By Thursday the worst of the pain had subsided and I was getting reasonably comfortable on the crutches. When I walked into the Dr's surgery and explained my symptoms, he just said "Oh, I know what that is! You've got a stress fracture in the neck of your femur". Sure enough, that's exactly what the MRI confirmed. Where the ball of the hip joint is attached to the top of the femur, there's a "grade 4" crack on the bottom side (I googled the grades, but it was all gobbledygook to me). I've yet to get the low-down from the doc, but going on what he told me on Thursday, I'll be on the crutches for a while and won't be back running for about 3 months.

So why am I a winner? Simply, the crack could have been on the top or the bottom of the neck. If it is on the top, then the crack tends to open when weight is put on it. On the bottom, weight tends to push the crack together. On the top, it often requires surgery and pins before it will heal. On the bottom, all it needs is time with no load and then it should be good as new. Mine's on the bottom side. How good is that! Also, the scan confirmed that there is no inflammation, bursitis, arthritis, etc, etc, etc in either hip, so that's a nice bonus.

So this season is a write off (pity, because it's the best start I've ever had), but there's always next year. :-)

Broken Gnome
(...so sad. He comes from a broken gnome, you know...)

p.s. of course, if I had got a proper diagnosis when the problem first occurred then I wouldn't have got to run 6ft... There you go. I'm a winner again :-)

p.p.s. although I'm fairly upbeat again now, I have to admit to having a very bad day on Friday. I like to think that I'm brave and strong and manly and all that crap, but the reality is that during the wait with the threat of surgery over my head, I was not in a happy place in my head (poor tiger angel). Thank you for all your comments, emails and PMs. They've all been very much appreciated.

The whole sad (self-inflicted) story...

2008-04-15T22:10:00.004+10:00

I'm sitting here with the last of a block of Toblerone beside me (but it won't be there for long - I've got some chocolate eating to catch up on! :-) ). If you don't have some chocolate handy then best go find some, 'cause this is a long one.

I guess it would be an understatement to say that Canberra didn't work exactly as I had planned, but as I said to Professor last week, I've done two impossible things this year (sub 5 hour 6ft and sub 41 min 10k), so why shouldn't I aim for a third? Well, it looks like two was enough and I can't complain about that, can I?

I actually carried a hip injury into 6ft, but the physio was happy that it wouldn't give me any problems on the day and that turned out to be correct. As the recovery period continued, the hip problems got a little worse but it was always OK when I was running - it only got painful after I stopped. I had got it into my head that I wanted to run Canberra and try to get that 3rd impossible thing before all the 6ft training wore off, so I discussed it with tiger angel and Dr Pain and, knowing that I'd be pretty sore after the event, went ahead anyhow.

I'd have to say that for a marathon, I ran a pretty comfortable 8k race. Sadly, that's just a little too short! Around about the 8k, but my calves started to solidify into blocks of wood. I was scared that they'd cramp up fully, but I figured that there was only one way to find out. At 10k, JD started to run ahead of Colin's 3:30 group and I picked it up there too. Apart from the aforementioned tree trunks for lower limbs, I was still feeling OK and sat on 4:45s for most of the way out to the mountain. However, I noticed from about the tunnel onwards that people were starting to overtake me.

Early on, wet, bedraggled and happy!

At the turnaround, JD was a good 100m ahead and Colin about the same distance behind so I was happy that things were still OK, although I was starting to wonder how long I could hold it. Those tree trunks were getting very heavy. I got to the 1/2 way point at 1:45, so theoretically on target for a 3:30, but in reality slowing up. I decided to stop and stretch my calves to see if that would help, but all it achieved was to let the 3:30 group go past. Not to worry. Onwards and upwards...

Tesso caught me coming along the road in front of the Old Parliament House, gave me a few comforting words and ran on like the gazelle she is. At the 25k aid station just before cowbell corner I decided to walk "just to get a drink" (I've never walked an aid station in a competitive race before). It was hard to get going again, but get going I did.

Tiger angel and Jen_runs were doing their long run around the course in the opposite direction to the race to maximise their cheering, so I'd had the opportunity to request some Neurofen. As I came around cowbell corner, there were my kids with pills and a drink waiting for me. (Outside assistance? Nah... :-) ). Sadly, it turned out to be too little too late. Running across the bridge the second time, I started to concentrate on form and see if I could lift myself a bit. I figured that if I could keep running (trudging) at the pace I was, I was still in for a shot at a pb (3:43), or failing that I might be able to run across the line with my mate Benny.

About 26k, still smiling (just)

At the bottom of Anzac Parade I stopped again to stretch my calves, but they weren't wanting to play ball so I sat for a moment on a handy fence post, and that's where all my chickens came home to roost. That little hip injury (you know, the one that only hurt when I stopped?), well, it decided that I must have stopped because it pulled out the knives and started stabbing! I couldn't put any weight on my right leg at all, so I sat in the gutter and took my number off my chest. I'm not sure why I did, but it just gave me a feeling that it was over now and I felt better for it.

Just then a bloke I know ran past so I asked him to notify the marshals. One walked over, checked that I was alive and comfortable and rang the first aid people. It only took about 5 minutes for him to arrive on his bike and he stayed with me for the 20 minutes or so that it took to get a pickup truck out there. As it didn't hurt when I didn't move, I was quite comfortable there and had a good time calling to everyone I knew (and lots that I didn't) as they passed. The first aid bloke was most impressed at the number of people that I knew, but he obviously doesn't know about the power of CoolRunning :-)

Getting from the gutter in Canberra to bed in Sydney turned out to be a pretty humbling task. First, the first aid bloke picked me up like a baby and put me in the truck. Back at the start, my two sons made a chair by gripping each other's arms and carried me about 500m to the car. That was a mighty effort on their parts, and they were both pretty sore afterwards. As we were staying in a flat at the top of 3 flights of stairs, I couldn't go back there. Instead, they drove me to the motel my eldest son and his wife were staying in as it had a lift. We got some funny looks as they carried me through the lobby and up to the room! :-)

Between the two boys and tiger angel, I've been carried everywhere I had to go. Yesterday, I was able to use an office chair with wheels to get around the house and this morning I got a pair of crutches. Mobility at last, but it comes at a price because it only takes one slip and the knives are plunging in again (and at the moment the slips come about once every 10 steps). Still, it's better than being flat on my back all day.

So, where to from here? I went to a physio today (unfortunately, Dr Pain is overseas at the moment) and she was completely confused. While I stay relaxed, she can move my leg through its entire range, and she can press and prod and not find any particularly sore spots. However, as soon as the muscle starts to contract, whammo! If it was the joint, then she shouldn't be able to move it freely. If it were a torn muscle then it should feel sore to palpitation, so what's going on?

I'm on some pretty strong painkillers and muscle relaxants which means that I sleep most of the time (I'm due my next lot about now, which is why I'm compos mentis enough to write this). I'm off to the sports physician on Thursday to see if he can make sense of it. 'Til then, the only option is to just wait and see, so that's exactly what we'll do.

Gnome

Uncharted territory (again)

2008-04-08T21:59:00.002+10:00

Wow. It's Tuesday night already. Physio tomorrow. Start carbo process Thursday. Drive down Saturday. R-day Sunday. All we need now is some smoke billowing from down below and a disconnected voice intoning "Ignition sequence start... five... four... main engines start... three... two..."

I just wanted to capture my feelings now, before the day. It'll be interesting to review them after the event. Normally, by this point before a big race, I'm starting to get a little tense (I think that tiger angel may privately use other descriptive terms - very nice ones of course :-) ). This time, I'm just excited. I know that I've not recovered fully from six foot and I know that I haven't done a great deal of quality work in the intervening period, but I just have a feeling that things are going to go really well. Even if they don't and I blow up big time, I know that I'm going to see some really good stuff from some people I hold dear, and that excites me much more than anything I might achieve.

Last weekend we drove up to Port to watch the Iron Man championships. I'm still staggered that anyone can swim 3.8km, let alone sit on a bike for 5, 6, 7 hours, but it was when we sat down to watch the run leg that I really got going. I just wanted to be in there and running with them. Four and a half more days and I will. Oo oo oo oo oo!

So, what's the goal? 3:23:48
Why so precise? Just to get away from round numbers I guess.
Is it possible? Yep!
Is it likely? Dunno! I'm about to learn if this experiment-of-one can run two good marathons back-to-back, so whatever happens, I'm going to know a little bit more about me than I knew before.

Ignition sequence start... :-) :-)

Gnome

So excited he slept in his running gear!

2008-03-23T21:39:00.002+11:00

Yes, dear reader. Last night I slept in my running gear. However, it was not through excitement at the thought of my first longish run after 6ft. It was instead because of a very odd error on my part. The night commenced with me (attired as normal) setting my alarm for 5:20. At the appointed hour, I arose, dressed and had a slice of toast. Just as I was heading out the door to meet the other striders, I glanced at the clock on the microwave. 3:33. Odd. Must be a cooking time that hasn't been cleared. Check the oven. 3:33. Check the kitchen clock. 3:33. Still not believing this apparent conspiracy on the part of these normally reliable timekeepers, I headed back to the bedroom. Tiger angel's clock was also in on the charade, but there was my clock, bravely leading the way a full two hours ahead of the rest. Mutter, mutter. Adjust clock, climb into bed still fully clothed (at least I removed my shoes) and back to sleep...

After all that, the run went fine. It was on a (in parts) hilly course around Wahroonga and although it was mostly run between 5:45 & 6 minute pace, I was comfortable and happy with the hills. I pushed the last k at about 4:30 just to make sure that I could and it was no hassles either.

In the spirit of the reverse taper, last week I did a few 12ks to work and run club on Thursday night. It was 3k time trial night, and I can tell you now that there was no way that I was going to run it as a trial. Instead, I ran it as an upper aerobic workout, sitting on steady 4:15s so I came in exactly a minute over pb, but it felt really good just to stride out again.

Tiger angel talked to all the kids over the last week and asked if they would like to come down to Canberra to watch the marathon. I'm not sure exactly what combination of carrots and sticks she used, but all four of them decided that Canberra is the place to be. As their parents' athletic pursuits are generally just a source of wry amusement to them, it will be interesting to see whether the occasion and the atmosphere finally helps them to 'get it'.

Tiger angel's week was in most part fairly standard - cycling the local hills with her training partner, discovering that she's now "just one of" the swim squad rather than one of the "it's OK to sit this one out" group, and continuing her base building by running to a low heart rate. Like all the 'Haddites' I know, she's hating the super slow pace, but with a little patience it should start to speed up soonish.

TA took her bike back to cycling guru Graham Blackman this week for a re-fitting because she's been getting sore knees after riding. He was happy with the setup except that when the seat post was replaced after she was run into on a massed ride last year, it was put up too high. Hopefully, that'll be the end of the sore knees, but it was his other little bombshell that has left TA thinking. As well as giving lots of good advice about nutrition and training, etc, Graham believes that she shouldn't be competing in anything for the next 10-12 weeks and that she should be concentrating purely on base building instead. This of course cuts right into her plans for the up-coming Tri NSW club champs at Port Stephens. No decision made yet, but I'm sure it will be reasonably soon.

Gnome

p.s. I should have noted in last week's post that the Jimmy Barnes look-alike in the photo is none other than our number three son Micro.

Recovery

2008-03-17T22:53:00.003+11:00

I'm in awe of the crazies who have been running vast distances since 6ft ("Oh, I've been taking it easy. I've only done 135km this week, not including the 10 x 2k intervals at 3:55 pace. Like I said - taking it easy...").

I, on the other hand, did a tentative ~4k on Thursday night (felt OK although heavy), an easy 5.5k on Saturday morning (felt OK although a bit heavy) and finally splashed out for an hour's run on Sunday night (felt OK although... :-) ). I'm pretty much committed to Canberra, even though I'm terrified of blowing up spectacularly. This business of doing back to back marathons is moving into totally uncharted waters for me.

On a much more positive note, I got to partake in one of my favourite hobbies on Sunday - watching tiger angel compete in a tri. This one was the Sparke-Helmore in Newcastle, and it was a dead-set beautiful place to run it. Pity it's so close to 6ft, or I could be really tempted next year. Luckily, I'm not totally insane yet :-)

The swim was an out&back & out&back course starting from the beach and rounding some flags on the beach in the middle. Strange, but it looked like fun. Unfortunately, a very large ship decided to take that moment to be dragged out of port, causing some significant waves. Add to that the tide running at its peak and an infestation of bitey things (that's the technical term), and the swim leg was maybe not quite as fun as it looked. Be that as it may, TA has discovered over her last two tris that the swim leg is turning out to be her best leg. I'm no super-trainer, but I have a hunch that's because she trains harder at swimming than the other disciplines. I might be wrong, but you never know... :-)

All up, she was hoping for 1:50 with a chance of 1:45, so hitting 1:48 made her muchos happy! :-)

As usual, I got to take lots of photos, of which this is my favourite.

Oh, and just what was this young Jimmy Barnes saying after the race?? :-)

Gnome

The first leaf in the goal tree falls

2008-03-09T22:26:00.002+11:00

This is just a repeat of my coolrunning report, put here for the sake of my own records.

I've had a long time to dream about this race, and now I've finally "been there, done that" I can honestly say that it exceeded all my expectations (including about how much it would hurt... ). This time last year I watched the finish from the 'comfort' of a chair, being unable to be vertical for more than a minute or two and having been told by an eminent sports physician that my running days were over. This time this year, I'm sitting in the comfort of my chair because my legs lock up every time I stand!

My intention was just to take it easy and not break a leg getting to the stairs at Nellies, but somehow I found myself there a little earlier than expected and I also had the opportunity to pass a few people going down so by the time we reached the bottom it was all clear running. Even though I spent most of the day passing people, I don't remember getting held up once and we made it to the river in 1:29. So far so good.

The only time I'd been on the track previously was to run from Caves Rd to the bottom of Pluvi and back, so everything up to there was new. The scenery around Lemon Tree Yards was lovely, and I got a surprise at how quickly we got to the bottom of Pluvi, and even more of a surprise at how quickly we got to the top (2:56)! I wasn't pushing it - just nice and steady - so it must have been that the race-day vibe chopped out a couple of km.

So many have said that to run a good race means to run the Black Range strongly, and so I set out to do just that. Up ahead I could see MissZ and set my sights on keeping her in view. Apart from 3(!) stops to empty rocks from my shoes (note to self - stop once and do a proper job next time), Black Range went really well and I started to think the unthinkable - a sub 5 hour debut. Sadly, as we worked those obscene hills through the deviation I caught my training partner Overthehill who had been attacked viciously by the Cramp Bear. He is such a strong runner that he sure didn't deserve to be back there with us (next year Brian, next year).

The crowds at Caves Rd crossing were a real lift and I had a grin from ear to ear knowing that I just had a little(!!) downhill to go, and downhill is my speciality isn't it... Alas, just as I passed the big 'Jenolan Caves Wildlife Reserve' sign I felt like someone had hit me with a brick. Knowing that I only had 6k or so to go I pushed on, still overtaking people as the opportunity arose, but my upper body started to lock up and shake so that before long all I could manage was a stiff-armed robot shuffle. MissZ was an absolute god-send though this section, encouraging me even though I think she was in a fair bit of pain herself. All I can remember of that ugly half hour was that I have never hurt like that, I have never been as utterly uncoordinated as that and I was so transfixed by the minutes ebbing away that I never thought once of stopping. How stupid is that!

All through the long training, whenever I started to get tired I'd think about the hand rail on the steps at Caves house and how good it would be to reach out and touch it. Somehow, when I finally reached that hand rail my body stopped shaking and my arms relaxed and I was able to stretch out a bit for those last few hundred metres. The shout from my beloved tiger angel told me that I was home, and the clock told me 4:58. All that remained was to sob uncontrollably on tiger angel's shoulder for a minute or two, then gather myself together and try to learn to walk again...

I know this has been longer than an Oscar's speech, but there are a few people who I really want to thank profusely. Without Jim Moody's 6ft training group I would never have put in the volume or quality of training that I did. Thanks Jim and thanks team. MissZ was magic and thoroughly deserves her Womens' Team 1st place award. Overthehill is one of those blokes who just keeps giving of himself - thanks for your encouragement and conversation over all those km. Seeing the tears in Redback's eyes as he crossed the line reassured me that I'm not the only obsessive romantic out there. Most of all, thanks to my beautiful tiger angel who loves me in spite of me; finishing six foot would have meant nothing without you at the end.

Almost there

2008-03-02T21:14:00.002+11:00

A good week for me, a pretty good week for tiger angel. TA's swimming is getting better and better with the twice-weekly squads she joined, and as of last Wednesday she had the first of what is planned to be a regular weekly ride with a friend of hers who is a stronger cyclist. They spent about an hour covering a good selection of the hills around Cherrybrook - in fact, around Cherrybrook it's hard to find anything that isn't a hill.

On Saturday she had a long run scheduled so she decided to make use of her prepaid strider's entry and make the 10k at North Head her long (steady, not fast!) run. All went very well for the first 5k, but just after that her breathing got a little restricted and, deciding that DNF stood for Do Nothing Foolish, she pulled the plug. She came good pretty quickly and had no problems with an easy hour this morning, so it was clearly the right thing to do. TA's entered the Sparke-Helmore tri up in Newcastle on the weekend after next in the amusingly titled "Diehards" distance (500m, 25k, 6k). Sounds very gung-ho! :-)

Only three runs (plus X-training) for me during the week just gone, well spaced from each other and all at a little bit higher intensity than normal. The last one was the doosey. Just as the key run last week was the Equaliser, the key this week was the Strider's 10k. Not only did I want a good run to put that last bit of spring in the legs, I also had a sneaking desire to get that PB that I just missed last month, and North Head's as good a place as any to get it.

Normally, I'd look at my PB (42:43 - 20 months old) and aim to pull 10-20 seconds off it, but this time I decided to give it a big shot - go with the 40 minute pacer and see what happened. At the same time, I was very aware of not doing anything stupid before next week, so I wasn't going to beat myself up trying to stay with the pace group for too long. I hung with the group for the first 3k's before I started to drift. At the turnaround point (about 5 1/2 k) I was still only about 20 seconds behind 40 minute pace, so I knew then that a PB was in sight as long as I didn't do anything dumb.

The 7th k was not so good - 4:19 - but that woke me back up and I pulled it back to the low 4's for 8 & 9. Some quick calculations at the start of the last k suggested that if I could hold the 4 minute pace for the last one then I could get a 90 second PB. North Head being favourable to fast last k's, I surprised myself with a final 3:48 to record a 108 second pb - final time 40:55! Stoked!

What made it even better was that I won a luck door prize (they distribute the prizes by pre-selecting some random positions from the start, middle and end of the field plus volunteers) and when my prize was announced, Barb said "prize goes to Bruce, who finished in 40:55, making him our front of the pack winner". No one's ever called me Front Of the Pack before! You couldn't get me in the car for the severely swelled head, and even now there some doubt about whether I'll be able to get my helmet on tomorrow morning :-) :-)

And so I find myself in an interesting position - one week out from the big one, in the best shape I've ever been, with the longest uninterrupted training period I've ever had - to put it simply, I've never had it so good. Does this mean that I'm going to be up there with the big boys? Front of the Pack? Don't be daft! What it does mean is that I'm in the best possible position to do the best I can, whatever that may be. I've had numerous prognosticators divining my finishing times, and as always they are about 1/2 to one hour too fast (but thanks for the confidence anyway! :-) ).

So, one easy week remains. A couple of runs, a couple of cycles, a preventative physio visit, a massage on Thursday and then Saturday morning, here we come! :-) Waiting for Christmas was never this much fun!

Gnome

2 weeks to go

2008-02-24T22:59:00.002+11:00

Taper week(s) started in a slightly confused fashion. Various events out of my control meant that I couldn't run on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday and our Angel was coming home from Africa on Thursday so Run Club was out too. I ended up riding to work on Wed, running home, running in Thursday, getting picked up to go to the airport, running in Friday and riding home Friday night. Told you it was confusing. I ended up with 3 sets of work clothes, 2 breakfasts, running gear, riding gear and various types of shoes in my locker at work...

Pushed Thursday's run a bit just to increase the intensity, and then added the CR5k and the Strider's 'Equaliser' (a 14k bush run on "undulating" terrain) on Sat and Sun respectively. Confirmed last month's 5k pb by managing another sub 20 in windy conditions and then had a good run at the equaliser too. Things seem to be setting up well, though my ankles and knees will be happy to get a bit of rest after 6ft. :-) Week total - 56k

Tiger angel is recovering finally, so she should be at North Head next week for her long steady run (aka striders 10k).

Gnome

3 weeks to 6 foot

2008-02-16T22:56:00.003+11:00

As of today, I've run my last 70km week (well, for at least 4 weeks anyhow). The long slow taper starts tomorrow (of course for many of you, a 70km week is a taper :-) ). From now on it's a case of slowly drop back the distance and up the intensity (and most of all, don't trip over! :-) ).

Today's little jog was a 34k around the wilds of Bobbin Head. The part of the run from the end of Grosvenor Rd down to Bobbin Head is just gorgeous. Even though we were in the 23 to 30 km stage, I felt really refreshed by that section. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone. It's quite easy because it is all either flat or downhill and it's mostly easy underfoot. Unfortunately, the run back up is a little less refreshing...

Things haven't run quite as according to plan for tiger angel. She's been nursing a cough for the last 3 weeks, and after the tri last week it was getting beyond a joke. One quick visit to the friendly GP later, she found herself in possession of Bronchitis and a lecture from aforementioned GP that any more training would see her in hospital with Pneumonia. He said that she was lucky to not have collapsed in the tri (she's made of tougher stuff than that, she is!).

Whilst she's still coughing intermittently, she's also starting to go stir-crazy which is a sure sign that she's on the mend. We took the dog for a 20 minute walk this evening with no apparent evil side effects. The Striders 'Equaliser' race next Sunday may be out of reach, but we've got a whole week to find out. :-)

Gnome

p.s. I just noticed a funny thing. I remember that back in 2006, I missed running 2000k for the year by less than 10k. Well, this January I had my biggest month ever, missing 300k for the month by just 2k. I really must start paying attention to these things before the month or year is finished! :-)

To Pluvio and below...

2008-02-10T18:45:00.000+11:00

I met the famous Pluviometer yesterday, and I understand why people treat her with such respect (but I can't understand how fats ran all the way up, and *then* put a burst on along Black Range because he was feeling good! Wow. But I digress. Anyhow...)

A group of us (CRs OverTheHill, Eveready Bunny, Strider Danielle and RunClubber Michael) went up to the Caves Rd crossing - leaving Sydney at 4am(??!!??) and arriving at just after 6am when the temperature was 11 degrees - and ran along the deviation, Black Range and down Pluvio and then back again. It rained a little but in general it was kind, better than the bucketing that we got for most of the drive up. By the time we got back to the cars, it was 10 degrees and there was hail on the ground, so somehow we had missed the edge of a hail storm. Lucky!!

I know that I hadn't run over Mini-Mini prior to Pluvio so it's only half the test, but I have to say that it has given me a fair bit of encouragement about our next date in 4 weeks' time. It's all good :-)

On to other good things, and tiger angel competed (along with CR Mango) at the Kurnell sprint tri this morning. The swim leg was interesting to say the least. The current was heading one direction and the waves in another, so it was reasonably washing-machine-like for a 'protected' bay swim. She was very happy with how it went (losing her chain during the cycle leg notwithstanding), so it's all onwards and upwards now :-)

As always I had my camera there. I've put up a few of the better shots up here, but here's a taste.

Who knew that synchronised swimming was part of a tri?

Here comes the Mango Man

Gnome

A long time coming...

2008-02-03T22:33:00.000+11:00

It's been a very long time since we have blogged - forgive us, you brave souls who may still read this - but it's not this posting that's been A Long Time Coming.

Last week, I (Gnome) set a new 5k pb - something I've been trying to do for 18 months and my first time ever below 20 minutes - but it's not that pb that been A Long Time Coming.

In November 2002, after a year of preparation, tiger angel competed in her first triathlon. For someone of her athletic (lack of) history, this was a really major event. A photo from that race still has pride of place on my desk at work. For the next few years, TA kept doing enticer-length tri's. Lots of them (there seemed to be about one a month back then). Somehow, the step up to longer events just didn't seem to be necessary nor interesting. Then, just as they started to appear on the horizon of her imagination, so did the various illnesses that have plagued her body over these last couple of years.

Today, over six years after she first contemplated triathlon, tiger angel competed in her first sprint-length tri (500m/20k/5k). That's what has been a long time coming! :-)

The major fear of the week was not "is it too much for me?", "is it too long?" or "will I fail miserably?", but "will it be too hot?". Today, in the company of CR buddies Jen_Runs, Wildthing & Mouse, she proved the resounding answer to those questions to be NO! NO! NO! and "well, yes, pretty much!" :-) Despite the heat, each leg was better than expected with her best ever swim time, backed up by really pleasing bike and run legs.

There's a bunch of photos here, but these ones are my favourites...

Nervous? Nah, not us

Attacking a hill

Whipping past another pesky upstart right on the line

...and to the victors go the spoils... rest for the weary :-)

Even hopeless TriNSW losing her times for the first two legs isn't enough to spoil what's been a Pretty Good Day.

Gnome

Snuck up on me

2007-12-17T21:39:00.000+11:00

Got a bit of a surprise last night when I was examining the entrails of my training week - my 3rd biggest week ever, and the biggest since before Canberra 2006. Why the surprise? Because I don't see what I'm doing now as being a slog like those pre-Canberra weeks were. [start kevin07 mode] Am I tired? Yep. Am I a bit niggley? Yep. But am I still raring to get out and run? You betcha! [end kevin07 mode].

As the last 4 weeks have all been relatively high km (by my standards anyhow - 59, 54, 58, 69), I've forced myself to have a down week this week. Normally that would mean halving every run, but this time I'm doing it a bit differently. I'll do TA's scheduled run with her tomorrow, nothing(!!??) on Wednesday, Run Club Christmas (which is more 'Christmas' than 'run') on Thursday and nothing on Friday. Then it's back to normal with the Strider's 6ft training group on Saturday and a leisurely(!!) lap of Quarry Rd with TA on Sunday morning (her first). Let's see how that goes to settle the aches and pains. :-)

This last weekend was fun (in a Masochistic kind of way :-) ). On Saturday, TA had to train bright & early as she was filling in for her boss through the day, and I had two laps of Quarry Rd with the 6ft Group. Quarry Rd is a strange and fantastical beast, a bit like our cat really. It lies there calmly, letting you pat it and thinking that you're in control of the situation, when suddenly it just lets fly with a claw or two and next thing you know you're a bloody mess... I've run one and a half laps quite a few times, but I've only done two-lappers twice. Both times I've got to the far end the second time thinking that everything was sweet, and both times I've totally died on the last hill. On Saturday, I even paused twice on some of the steeper sections because my glutes just didn't want to push any more! If that's what happens on a 26k run, how am I going to cope with 46? These and other questions might get answered in less than 12 weeks :-)

On Sunday, I introduced TA to the joys of SMC. It seemed like a relatively cool morning, but somehow smiffo lived up to its reputation and grew more humid as the morning wore on. Our aim was to run the 10k as TA's long run, so no racing allowed. The longer we went, the better TA felt, and it turned into one of those really pleasurable runs. We were aiming for around 60:xx and landed on 60:37. Funny thing was, TA was only 30 seconds behind her category leader! Next time she'll have to aim for 59:xx :-)

...and so into the 'easy' week. Will I have to discipline to stick with it?? Tune in next week and find out...

Gnome

Almost the end...

2007-12-02T21:42:00.000+11:00

...of the year, and the last major race (CC Half, today). As I've mentioned before, things are gradually coming back together and I'm very happy that my last 5k, 10k & HM races have all produced season PBs. Today's time was not only a season pb, but also my second fastest time ever. Still 5 minutes over last year's magical mark, but I'm still pretty damn happy :-)

Tiger angel's taper for the 9k comprised glute-trashing sessions on Thursday night and Saturday morning, so she was already amongst the walking wounded before she even started. She was only supposed to be taking it easy, but I'm not sure that 'easy' is a word in her vocabulary, so the glutes are even more trashed tonight. In fact, we're both walking around like a couple of old crocks. (As an aside, I was talking to a friend last week who asked me "what does it feel like to be fit? Do you sleep better? Walk with a spring in your step?". I had to be honest. "Nup" I said, "I'm tired and I ache all the time!". Not much of an advertisement, am I? :-) :-)

Johnny Dark & I had a very similar race to hers, I think. Both very even (although JD & I averaged 4:25s for the first 5 k and were averaging 4:45s by the last 5, so we were steady, but getting steadily slower) and both pretty tough. I noticed in the early stages that we were doing 4:25s, so I guess that I should have slowed down then, because there was no way that either of us were going to keep that pace up for 21k. Still, hope springs eternal I guess. :-)

I went anaerobic at about 12k, so everything from there was pretty uncomfortable. There were so many times that I just wanted to drop off the pace, but there was JD running along strongly beside me. At the same time, he said a number of times to "go on ahead if I drop off. I'm at my limit". I think that if the truth be known, neither of us wanted to let the other one down, and so we ran on... 95:59 :-)

Gnome

Pretty Good Recovery

2007-11-27T21:36:00.000+11:00

After feeling so crook at the end of Nepean, I assumed that I'd be having a very easy week. However, after a couple of hours kip in the afternoon, I joined tiger angel for the second half of her one hour walk. Boy, does she walk fast! Most of the time I was left panting and gasping in her wake, but by the end of it I was feeling loose limbed and pain-free and I woke up on Monday feeling 100%. Amazing! I'm putting in a recovery walk after everything big from now on.

Thus, the week became like many others - Tues 5k run, then ride to/from work; Wed Run to/from work; Thurs Ride to work, Run club; Fri Rest day. The run club session was a killer (both TA and I were sore on Friday), but it really set me up for the CR5k on Saturday.

The session was

1 x 1600 (400 splits - 1:46, 1:50, 1:51, 1:51)
Rolling 100's (Sprint 70, ease down to the 100, then jog back to start - 22, 39, 21, 42, 20, 43, 20, 42, 20). The first split is the 100, the 2nd is the jog back and so on. As you can see here and below, the 100s got faster and the recoveries got longer :-)
2 x 800 - Missed the first split, 1:35, 1:30, 1:35
rolling 100's - 20, 40, 20, 45, 20, 47, 19, 47, 19
3 x 400 - 1:29, 1:29, 1:23 (pushed the last one).

I told JD & Langswm at the start of the CR5k that it was going to be either Fly or Die, and it turned out to be fly. I knew after the first km that things were going well - I felt like I'd be able to hold the pace, and the pace was at the better end of my expectations. Splits were 4:15, 4:12, 4:14, 4:11, 4:05 for a finish time of 20:57, being the first time I've gone under 21m this year. Cool!

Tiger angel had a bit of a gut ache before she started, but started nonetheless. Unfortunately, I think she started a little too enthusiastically which is quite strange as she normally has metronomic pacing. A 2:30 first 500m sent her well and truly anaerobic, and although she held on to 5:30s for the first 4 k, she never recovered and she had to retire :-(

The run back was pretty good though; we ran together and she ran strongly - in fact when JD & I stopped for a drink at Rodd Pt, she ran on and we didn't catch her until we got back to the Rowers.

Finally, on Sunday morning we went for a bush run - TA did the first hour with me, then I went back in and did another 90 minutes, giving me my longest run since January and TA's longest since May. It's all good! :-)

Looking forward to the Central Coast on Sunday. TA's doing the 9k and I'm doing the half with JD and Eagle. It's gunna be fun :-)

Gnome

Triathlon - a nice place to visit...

2007-11-18T22:08:00.000+11:00

...but I wouldn't want to live there. It was a lot of fun today & I'm wearing my finisher's shirt with pride, but strike, it was tough! Hats off to all who choose to do it regularly. I don't think I'll aspire to be in that category** :-)

It was too warm for wet suits which caused some consternation amongst the competitors, but didn't bother me 'cause that's the only way I know how to swim. I was hoping for under 30 minutes, so I got a real buzz when tiger angel called out "sub 25" (official time, 24:28, 47/60 category position). Much better than expected.

I managed a 'leisurely' transition. :-) Amongst other things, I knew that part of TA's transition mantra is "Helmet on first", but of course she doesn't need to put a shirt on... Helmet off, shirt on, helmet on again... About this point I realised that 3 of the 4 pins holding my race number to my shirt had sprung open and were scattered around the ground. Find one of them and re-secure number...

The bike leg was great. I found out today that I'm better on acceleration than some, but slower in a straight line than most. Hence, the technical parts around the industrial area suited me to a T, the straight along Castlereagh less so. Got a remarkably sore butt in a remarkably short time. By my measurement, I did the 30k in 57 minutes (av speed 31.6kph). The official time (including both transitions) was 1:01:41 (46/60).

The run leg was the best! A few people (mostly team runners) passed me, but I had the immense satisfaction of passing LOTS of people. The surprise for me was that, although I was aerobically fine, I felt like I had no strength at all. It was the weirdest feeling. Still, given that I'm only running 44 minute 10ks at the moment, I was super pleased with an official 48:05 (25/60), and a final overall time of 2:14:15 (35/60), heaps under my hoped for 2:30:00.

I'd like to expand here what I've already said on Cool Running. I've watched tiger angel doing triathlons since 2002, and before she got sick it seemed like she was doing them every few weeks. She seemed to be having so much fun that I wanted to try too, but my one-and-only attempt was such a miserable experience because of the swim leg that I contented myself with photographing from the sidelines. At the beginning of this year I asked TA to teach me to swim as an adjunct to my 6ft training, and she did so with patience and skill (I imagine that it's quite hard to teach someone who you're very close to and who keeps asking 'why?' to everything you say) so that I was already achieving laps after only a couple of lessons, and I was swimming more than a km straight within a couple of months.

When I found tiger angel after the race I got a bit emotional trying to explain to her just what she'd given me and I think that I was a little incoherent (no! :-) ), so I'm going to say it again here. Once again, you've given me a life experience that I never could have achieved on my own. Thank you, my Beautiful.

Gnome

** Note that I said 'regularly'. I didn't say that I don't intend to do it again... :-)

Countdown

2007-11-12T21:47:00.000+11:00

One week to go to Nepean, less than a week till carbo loading! :-)

I had a lighter week this week, though it still felt full on. Monday swum 1.1k, then rode to work and home. TA did a 1 hour walk (on top of running 3 individual and group training sessions). Tuesday, TA did a 30 minute swim, but the pool was too crowded so she called it a day. I ran to work and back - still enjoying it. :-) Wednesday was a rest day for me and a 45min really solid bike session for TA. On Thursday I rode to work, and then Run Club.

The session was a killer. Tiger angel & I were dragging ourselves around on Friday (wisely taken as another rest day by both of us). We did 4 x 200, 2 x 400, 2 x 800, 2 x 400 and 2 x 200 (was supposed to be four, but we ran out of light). I kept the splits pretty even, but the 800s were slower than I wanted. Ah well. I pulled out a couple of 35s for the last two 200s, so that was pleasing. TA's run was so even that you could have set your watch by her! :-)

The weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday morning, tiger angel had her training with Freespirit (a brick session with body weight exercises thrown in after each run leg) while I went to the first run of the Strider's 6ft training group. I still really want to get at least one 6ft under my belt, so let's see if this year I can manage it. We ran up from under the Roseville bridge to a park in Lindfield and back - about 14k in just under 1 1/2 hours. Then in the afternoon we went down to Clovelley for my first wettie swim (thanks for the loan, Tim). It was fine. Fitted me like a glove, and it was fun watching all the fish. You don't see them in a swimming pool! :-). Unfortunately, we also had the company of a few blueys, one of which brushed my arm, and one of which got in under TA's collar, leaving her with a big welt on her neck. Not nice :-(

On Sunday morning we went to Homebush early for a brick session (for me - TA was under instructions to do nothing more than walk). We found a new area with a 1.3km circuit which was just perfect. I did 3 laps pretty solid on the bike, one lap running, then repeat. Bike averaged 26kph, run 4:30 pace. I don't normally hit lots of tight turns on my rides to work, so this was really good to sort out some of the technical stuff too. Lots of birds and other wildlife around - alas, the wildlife included flies, but you can't have everything. They've build a new cafe down there too - we didn't have time to sample its wares because we wanted to get back for church, but I can imagine heading down there again some time.

Lucky it was a lighter week, eh?

Gnome

Good for the Gander, less so for the Goose.

2007-11-04T21:26:00.001+11:00

Hmmm... In my attempted misappropriation of an old saying, I may have just called my beloved tiger angel a goose. Unintentional, believe me. Ah well, push on...

It has been a very good week for your old mate Gnome. Firstly, it was my first >60km week since the first week of January. Secondly, I ran to and from work on Wednesday, fulfilling a long held dream to run to work (and, for the first time ever, backing up two reasonable length runs - 11.5k each - on the same day), and thirdly, I ran a season's best time of 44:30 at the Striders 10k at Lane Cove on Saturday. It's still a long way off my 42:19 pb, but at least it's heading in the right direction! :-)

Apart from that, I squeezed in a 1.5k swim on Monday, a 5.5km AT run on Tuesday, cycled to work twice (though got a car ride home both times for various reasons), did Run Club on Thursday night and a 16.5k run up to Hornsby and back this morning (Sunday). Phew... Run Club comprised a 10 minute 30/30 session (30 sec firm, 30 sec float) and then 2 x 2km reps. It was supposed to be 3 x 2k, but we ran out of time. :-) 500m splits for the reps (actually 475m splits, but who's counting) were;
2:05, 2:03, 2:05, 1:58 and
2:01, 2:02, 2:06, 2:02.
That's roughly a 4:25 pace, which set me up well for the 10k on Saturday. Like I said, a pretty good week.

Tiger angel, alas, didn't fare quite as well. At the moment, her focus is on strength, so Monday and Wednesday's sessions were an interesting hill mix. She had to run a 100m hill, recover down, then walk the same hill up and down with 5kg weights in each hand, and then repeat all that 3 more times. Tuesday was a more traditional gym weights session. After the Wednesday session, her back was a bit sore and as she was at the physio anyhow for her wrist, she asked that her back be looked at instead. General consensus was that her glutes and hammys were tight as a drum, and her pelvis was a bit out of whack again, so all that was worked on. However, afterwards, her left calf got *really* sore up near the back of her knee. It hurt to walk until it warmed up, and was really sore to the touch all the time. Hrmph!

As it didn't feel like a tear, and it was OK to use after warming, tiger angel decided to do the Run Club session nice and easy. Now, you're expecting me to say that everything exploded in a shower of blood and tissue, aren't you? The way things have gone this year, that'd be about par for the course, but actually the whole session went really well - it still hurt like crazy to touch, but didn't hurt at all to run. Most strange! Since then, it's got better and better so by now it takes a concerted bit of poking and prodding to make it hurt. The sports doctor on duty at the striders run said that it was just a strain and that doing a set of heel lifts before running was all that was required and that there was no continued problem. Good news, but it just leaves one question. Where did the problem come from in the first place? Curiouser and curiouser...

Gnome

Back on the road (cough, splutter)

2007-10-28T22:11:00.000+11:00

When last we left our intrepid heroine and her dashing manservant, she was suffering at the hands of her evil trainer, and he was suffering at the hands of... well, he was just suffering. What new problems will befall them in this episode of:
The amazing adventures of
Super TA and the Gnome wonder!

Last week, I was recovering from my back issues. Mostly they were fine, though some mornings I had to put a hot pack behind my back for a little while before I got going. I timed a 1k in the pool on Tuesday at 27 minutes which confirmed my assumption about my position in the pack at Nepean. I had a few days riding to work now I'm at Nth Ryde, and a few runs culminated in a 15k run on Saturday. Happy that the running is coming back together, even though it was only a 26km week.

This week, however, was pretty much a disaster. I got run over by an ugly virus and spent the best part of the week at home asleep. Back to work on Friday, still a bit under the weather, but by Saturday morning was feeling well enough to run with tiger angel in the CR5k (more of this later). I was half expecting to have to turn back early, but as it turned out, the 10k suited me fine and there were no after effects. Emboldened by this, I did a trial run from Pennant Hills oval down to work through the bush this morning (Sunday) and apart from getting lost quite a few times, I think that running to work once a week is going to be a viable option. Good end to a very ordinary week.

Tiger angel's weeks have been a little more successful. She's been doing a number of long walks (1.5 hour) as her time-on-feet element, plus the normal weights, swimming and stationary bike. In addition, Run Club last week comprised a 3k, 2k & 1k all at race pace (she ran steady 5:45's the whole time), and on Wednesday this week she did a trial 40 minutes on the pushie down at Homebush. The pain in her wrist every time she stopped or turned the handlebars means that it'll still be a while before she's back in the saddle in a big way, but it's a start! :-)

Finally, yesterday morning at the CR5k, she ran her first 10k since the hip blow-up at the herald half in May (5 months!). The 28:14 was very pleasing; she was expecting closer to 30 minutes. And so the progression continues... :-)

Gnome

p.s. I have to admit to starting to get a bit excited about this Nepean thingy. 3 weeks to go!

Not much of anything

2007-10-14T20:28:00.000+10:00

It's been a little while since I blogged, mainly because it's been a little while since I ran :-(

Those at last weekend's Striders' 10k may have seen me once again with a camera around my neck. The sad story was that my back had a spasm while I was pulling on my trousers on Friday morning. (What is it about me and dressing? It was putting on my shoes that did the damage back in January!). I took the week off and then did the run/walk thing at Run Club on Thursday, and while it didn't feel comfortable, it didn't feel worse afterwards. A slow 3k by myself on Saturday and a 50 minute run with tiger angel today (Sunday) confirmed that running is possible, but I don't think that I'll be running any marathons in the next few weeks... :-) TA was really whacked after her PT session on Saturday, so we were both happy with the 6:25 pace.

I'll just keep trying to go around slowly until it feels more comfortable, and see what happens then. As of tomorrow, my work has transferred to Nth Ryde, so I'm expecting to be able to ride to work more often, and possibly even run occasionally. I'm looking forward to that now; I wonder how I'll feel about it after a few weeks :-)

TA's trainer has declared "no more mister nice guy" and has upped the intensity of her training somewhat. Hence, she's been pretty tired and achy lately, but I think that it's that good form of tired when you know why and you can see a purpose. It sure beats the other type! :-) At this stage, her training continues the broad range of disciplines - weights, riding, swimming & running, so she only gets to run twice a week. I don't think that I could cope with this tri-style training; I like the running too much.

Speaking of Triathlons, we got an email the other day advertising the Nepean Tri and it got me thinking. Now that (thanks to TA's excellent tuition) I *can* swim a km - albeit slowly - there's no real reason why I shouldn't go and have some fun in the sun out Penriff way. They may be packing up the course around me, but having no illusions about my capabilities frees me up to just enjoy the day, wave to the crowds and chat with the other battlers down the back. (Note, if you see me waving to the crowds during the swim leg, hop in and rescue me, won't you?? :-0 ). TA doesn't think that she's up to the full distance at this stage (lack of movement in her wrist means that control of the bike is still untested and unknown), but if she decides that the enticer is an option, then I'll be in there like a shot. Doing a short one with her beats doing anything by myself!

Gnome

p.s. we went to Micro's footy club Presentation Dinner last night where they did the whole 'Brownlow type' round-by-round vote counting for B&F. Macro excelled himself by coming 7th (even topping the votes for one round). 'Twas quite a new experience for TA and myself to see one of our children up on the big screen in a sporting context. Most chuffed! :-)

The fun-est kind of morning

2007-10-03T22:50:00.000+10:00

I had such a fun morning this morning (Wednesday). Tiger angel had a client session locally at 6:15, so she was going to get home about 7:30 before going out for her own session. Consequently, I headed out at 7am for a 1/2 hour AT run (5.5k at 4:40 pace), and then went with TA for hers. 2.5k warm up jog down to the oval, then 2 x 800 at AT pace with a 400 walk recovery. 400m splits were 2:08, 2:10, 2:09, 2:11, so you're not going to get much more even than that. She walked home while I ran (2k @5:05 pace). Actually, I walked with her for the first 500m or so, though I'm not sure whether it was because I was tired or because I love walking with her :-)

I don't really know what it was, but mixing the session up like that; starting with AT, then a slow jog, then TA's ATs and finally my run home was both really wearying and a whole bunch of fun at the same time. Maybe it was the fun of the different, maybe it was having TA around, maybe it was both. Either way, top morning.

Working back through the week, we both went swimming on Tuesday (1.5k for me, 1k for TA) and we did a nice 5.5k @ 6:45 pace on Monday evening (when it had cooled down a bit!).

TA created a new type of CR5k challenge on Saturday. She created the CR3k challenge, but driving around to Rodd Point and starting from the 2k mark. Her 3k time was 17:20, which is super pleasing for where she's been. Told you she was coming back! :-) I managed 21:23 as well (with the able pacing assistance of CR Vurt), which chops another 20 seconds off the old PBP-PB. Both especially happy given the strength of the WIND!

Gnome

Of Cheering and Statistical Anomalies

2007-09-26T08:58:00.000+10:00

Last week was my biggest week since January (56k), though only by a statistical anomaly because I did the previous week's Sunday long run (17k) on Monday. Made the week before look a little weak :-)

All up, I had some really nice runs. On Wednesday morning I ran down to the local oval to do an interval session with tiger angel (who had driven there). 8x400 with 200 walk recoveries. TA set the pace, and how's this for evenness. 2:05, 1:57, 1:56, 1:57, 1:56, 1:56, 1:57, 1:58. She really had to hang on for those last two! Ran home afterwards. Thursday night's rain caused Run Club cancellation, so Julia, Pete and I went for a bay lap. Pete really can't run that slowly (he does a 70-something half marathon), so he made his apologies after about a k and left us to our own devices. I don't know what it is about running in the rain, but we just chatted and ran and finished with a sub-5 minute average pace. Beaut!

Friday & Saturday were a lather of stress and self-doubt in the lead up to the Blackmores half. I do enjoy pacing races like this when I'm not up to putting in a good run myself, but I always worry about whether I'm going to lead people astray or leave them stranded if something goes wrong. Anyhow, it all turned out fine and I finished 3 seconds ahead of the nominated time with some satisfied customers, so it's all good!

After the run I made my way back down to the CR Cheer Squad in front of the MCA building to watch the marathoners come in. The marathoners were inspiring as always, but the Cheer Squad was fantastic; really going off. The longer the day wore on and the slower the runners got, the louder the Cheer Squad got, and I was really impressed that they didn't reserve their cheers just for Cool Runners, but cheered any and everyone. There was a loot of comment on the CR forums about how uplifting they were, but I noticed many times comments like "the cheer squad were fantastic. They really gave me a lift when I needed it. I wasn't wearing any CR gear...". Girls and fellas, take a bow! :-)

There they are in a slightly lower-energy moment... (thanks to CR springer for the photo).

TA and I were both really tired so we took our leave early from lunch at the pub, went home and crawled into bed and slept for 3 hours. Nice end to a great day :-)

Gnome

(Oh, incidentally, the 21st birthdays in last week's blog were for 'Angel', our daughter, not tiger angel. Sorry for any confusion. Maybe we need to invent a new nom-de-plume for her)

21 today, 21 today...

2007-09-18T23:08:00.000+10:00

Well, actually it will be 21 tomorrow, but tonight we had the second of Angel's three parties (three parties?? Yep. Saturday night for 35 of my close rels - I come from a large and relatively fecund family - tonight with tiger angel's parents, and one some time in the future for all Angel's friends. This is what we run for; to build the stamina to cope with situations like this :-) ).

The major effect - exercise wise - of all that partying (and related preparations) was that
a) neither of us had time to exercise, and
b) we both needed to! (Chocolate... Yum... :-) )

Hence, Saturday's run never eventuated, and I did my Sunday long run on Monday morning - 1 hour 45 min for about 17.5k. Pretty slow, but some of it was in the bush which always slows things up. That's my excuse anyhow.

Tiger Angel has copped the full force of spring, so the hay fever is making her pretty tired. Consequently, she skipped Monday's session (it's called 'listening to your body, right??!), but tomorrow morning we'll go and do a track session together. Love it :-)

Off to bed before it really is 21 today...

Gnome

...improbability level 2,568,381 to 1 and falling...

2007-09-12T22:36:00.000+10:00

...normality will be reached just as soon as we work out just what is normal anyhow...**
I realised tonight that I could do a plain and simple training update, and the last time I blogged like that was at the beginning of July. Wow. Yep, normality does appear to be poking its head up over the parapet, so here goes.

Over the last two weeks, I've managed to do up over 40k. The last time I managed that was one week in June, then one in January, and I have to go back to November last year when I was working to the Central Coast Half (my best run ever) before I can find consistent training. Wow again. So, last week;

Monday - Hills session with tiger angel. 200m hill, 7 reps with walk recovery, times ranged from 1:24 to 1:16. The aim of these is not so much for strength as a normal hills session would be, but to get some work into her body without long aerobic sessions. In other word, a hard-case walk/run.
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 11k at 5:30 pace around local streets.
Thursday - Cycled to work (25k) but Run Club rained out in the evening.
Friday - 1.4km swim with TA
Saturday - Hmmm. My diary for Saturday just says "Wanted 10k; did 10k; got bored". (5:35 pace). I was thinking during the run how much I didn't want to do 20k on my own on Sunday when it occurred to me that Sunday was SMC's first race of the season, and there'd be sure to be someone there doing the half at a pace that I could fit in with. So, on...
Sunday, I fronted up at Smiffo, and had absolutely the best run with Johnny Dark and Seagull. 1:44:19 for the half. Just sub 5 min pace, chatting but keeping each other honest speed-wise at the same time and spurring each other to achieve more than we thought possible. Running at its best!

So much for last week. This week (so far)...

Monday - we repeated the hills session, but this time did 8 reps at 1:11, 1:11, 1:11, 1:11, 1:14, 1:12, 1:13, 1:12. Much faster and much more even. TA was very happy with that lot (and quite happy that they were finished too, I might add :-) ). She says "next week, NO HILLS!".
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday (today) - 10.5k at 5:40 pace - rolling (& large) hills.

Plans for the remainder are cycling, Run Club, swimming, another 10k and 20k on the weekend and then start the taper off for the Sydney half.

Speaking of the half, I offered (somewhat late) to assist with pacing the 120 minute group if needed, and this week Katie asked if I could take the 110 minute group. Prior to last Sunday's run I would have said no way, but it gave me the confidence to (take a deep breath and) accept. Hence, on Blackmore's morning you'll find me with a red flag on my back, shepherding a group around the new course. I have to admit to still being a bit scared...

Enough about me! What about tiger angel? Well, apart from Monday's hills and Friday's swimming, she's been doing 90 min walks every few days interspersed with weights & bike sessions at the gym. She still gets pretty tired, but that's expected to improve a fair bit over the next month or two. Dr Pain (the magical medicine man) is really pleased with how her hip is working, and today's good news is that she has regained a little movement in her wrist, courtesy of some massage & manipulation (and sudden cracking noises) by the aforementioned Dr P...

Gnome

**with apologies to Douglas Adams

That's it! I'm screwed...

2007-09-06T22:44:00.000+10:00

...not so much metaphorically, but physically. Tiger angel went back to the surgeon this week and got some new X-rays in the process. The verdict is that her wrist is getting better slowly, but unfortunately 'slowly' is the operative word. She's back driving as of this visit, so that's made her life a whole lot easier too.

Anyhow, I thought you might like to see this...

Gnome

Striders 10k - Training diary, week zero

2007-09-03T23:13:00.000+10:00

We tried a very advanced scientific experiment last week. When it comes to experiments, the only failure is a failure to obtain a clear cut result, so I'd say that the experiment was a resounding success!

Hypothesis. Our hypothesis was - "Great results can be obtained in a 10k race by spending the better part of the preceding week lying around in spas and eating (not necessarily at the same time, although that was open to experiment too)".

Method. Given our dedication to practicing the scientific method, we took ourselves off to a wonderful little place called Kims (a place known primarily for its seclusion and its food - how many other places post sample menus on their web site??) and devoted ourselves to fully testing our hypothesis. Regardless of our commitment to scientific endeavour, I do have to admit that we had a wonderfully relaxing time, which is something we haven't had a lot of lately.

Results. So much for the experiment; what about the results? Well, if you'll pardon the culinary metaphor, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. On Saturday morning I lined up for the 10k with the 45 minute pacer (CR Over The Hill), started a little faster than necessary and then just got slower and slower and slower... Apart from a few people in the first 500m, I did no overtaking but instead got continually overtaken for the entire rest of the race (I have to admit to speeding up to overtake one poor suffering soul in the last few hundred just so I could claim a meagre triumph. Pathetic, isn't it :-) ).

Conclusion. I think that it is reasonable to draw a preliminary conclusion that the hypothesis is flawed, and lazing and lots of fine food is not necessarily the best preparation for a race. However, it should be noted that a test of one instance is statistically insufficient to draw firm conclusions, and hence it is recommended that the test be repeated a number of times. For further variation, it maybe could be repeated before different length races such as marathons, halves and 3 & 5k to ascertain their effect. There is definitely much to be explored...

(still short, but now slightly fatter) Gnome

It's a PBP PB

2007-08-26T22:28:00.000+10:00

There you go, try saying that three times quickly... :-)

There's been precious little to blog about over the last few weeks. Work and home life has been hectic, meaning that I've been averaging 2 runs per week; one on the weekend and Run Club on Thursday. I expect that it's likely to stay that way for a few weeks to come. Consequently, the goal at the moment is just to maintain a holding pattern - do enough to keep some kind of base for when I need it, but don't start any build up.

On the keeping-the-base front, I was pretty pleased with the CR 5k challenge on Saturday. I had the enormous pleasure of running with Tesso (with JD and Rags in hot pursuit). We decided at the start to aim for 22:30 (ie 4:30 pace), but after a k or two we were doing 4:20's and I felt like we'd be able to hold it OK. Hold it we did, for a time of 21:44 with nicely even splits of 4:17, 4:22, 4:24, 4:23 & 4:19. That's a Post-Back-Problem Personal Best, and I'll take 'em if I can get 'em! :-)

Tiger Angel's wrist is not healing any slower than expected, but there's no doubt that it is healing a whole heap slower than she'd prefer!! It still severely limits her activities and the pain continues to be significant, but on the bright side we see little improvements every week. Don't tell anyone else, but just between you and me I have this sneaking suspicion that she's on the cusp of a pretty special period. Look back in six or twelve months time and try to tell me that I was wrong... :-) :-)

Gnome

C2S - how good was that?

2007-08-13T22:45:00.000+10:00

I've learned a lot over the last 5 years or so. I know so much more about efficient running. I know lots more about how my body is reacting to situations and most importantly, I know much more about the tricks my mind plays on me.

Yesterday could have been a complete disaster. Let's see...

Tiger Angel was not running.
My back got sore sitting on the ground for 90 minutes before the start.
It was hot.
I was running by myself.
I've had stuff-all training this year, so I could have blown up any time.
I was starting from A2, so I had to dodge people pretty much all the way.

Can I think of any more whinges? Maybe if I try hard I could, but that's the trick, isn't it? Finally, finally, I'm learning to focus on the positives. Not some kind of Pollyanna pretending, but a serious appreciation of just how good it all was. Sure, I would have preferred to be running with TA, but it was so exciting to see her in the cheer squad and I was so proud of the time I'd run simply because she saw me run it! Sure, my back got sore, but lying down for a few minutes fixed that. Yep, it was hot, but there was more water available than I could drink and, yep, I was passing people all the time, but that also meant that I could encourage the cool runners I passed and I got to see all sorts of Borats (ok - so maybe that was a negative :-) ).

I sat with friends during the wait. I talked to 'friends' I didn't know along the way. I ran the last 4k with Will which made the murderous half-marathon along Campbell Parade just that bit easier. I met friends in the finishing area. I stood with friends at the cheer squad. I sat with friends in the pub...

In fact, I think this just about sums up the day. First thing in the morning, I joined one of the toilet queues. Uncle Dave was about 3 people ahead of me. Ewen was a few people behind. The bloke in front of me turned around and said "Isn't it amazing. 60,000 people here and you meet people you know", and I thought to myself Nup, I expected to!

Gnome.

p.s. the blokes at work wanted to know why I had let Dickson Marwa win, so I explained that as he was a visitor it was up to me to do the courteous thing... :-) :-)

Good news

2007-08-07T23:00:00.000+10:00

My dad always said that when you're flat on your back, the only way to look was up, and that's exactly where we're looking! :-)

On Friday night I went for a trial jog around the (5km) block and arrived back in one piece. A further run on Sunday (10k) and a slightly faster one tonight (6k) has convinced me that 14k is probably OK, so roll on Sunday! It's not going to be a pb - or anything like it - but at least I'll be there. Yeah!! Regardless of what happens, I promise to have fun...

Tiger angel's plaster came off on Monday; replaced by a moulded plastic and velcro contraption that she has to take off 4 times a day in an attempt to mobilise her wrist. At this stage it is about as mobile as Michelangelo's David and any movement hurts, but you know TA. That wrist is going to be flopping around before you know it, regardless of how much pain it takes to get there.

The surgeon has said that she can go swimming, though we don't know whether he means swimming or just paddling around, and we don't know whether it's with or without the plastic contraption, so we'll find out tomorrow morning by trying it out. If it doesn't hurt too much, then it must be meant to be... :-)

See you Sunday!

Gnome

Update

2007-07-31T21:56:00.000+10:00

Tiger Angel's surgery went as well as expected. The surgeon's opening words afterwards were "well, there were about 5 major pieces...". Three plates and lots of screws later, she's a pretty sore and sorry pussy cat. None of you will be surprised, however, to hear that she refuses to sit back and let other do everything. She cut the carrots tonight by lying the carrot on the chopping block and swinging a large knife down from shoulder height! The results were described as "rustic". :-) :-)

Back to the surgeon on Monday to see how it's going and get the cast changed to something a little more waterproof (not that that implies swimming - that's a fair way off yet). For the moment we're just walking, although TA's allowed to start on a stationary bike at the gym (not the wind trainer at home - that's much too unstable).

I'm not up to jogging yet, though I'm hopeful that I might be able to try a little something this weekend. We live in hope :-)

Gnome

This is getting ridiculous

2007-07-24T22:25:00.000+10:00

Short and sweet. Tiger angel slipped over last week and broke her arm pretty badly. She's having surgery tomorrow morning (expected 3 hours) to have a bunch of plates and screws put in. No driving or using her arm for 4 to 5 weeks. Not likely to be able to run for at least that long. The good news is that her hip is starting to get better (why do I feel like screaming at this point???).

In a similar but far, far less serious manner, I think I cracked a rib on Saturday so I'm not running either. Can you believe that we're actually talking about walking the C2S, more out of stubbornness than anything else...

Gnome

Another two weeks go by

2007-07-07T20:44:00.000+10:00

After a careful but consistent ramp up, I figured that it was time for an easy week last week, and then right back into it this week. Hence, last week was limited to 20k (5k tue, 5k thur& 10k at the CR5k). The 5k went well. On the basis of times I've been doing in training, I set out for 22:30. Managed to pull an extra 5 seconds/k off that and ended with 21:57. That's ok for where I'm at.

This week I've done 6k tues, 12k wed, 5k thurs & 10k at striders this morning. On the basis of the 5k time, I aimed for 45 minutes and (with the help of CR OverTheHill when the going got tough in the 6-7k zone) I managed 44:38. Again, better than expected, though it was hard work and I wanted to give up and just relax quite a few times.

I'm intending to do 18k tomorrow, but a combination of Micro's footy being early and on the other side of Sydney followed closely by the Swans game means that I'll have to run at night. Not my favourite time :-( Anyhow, it should make for a 50k week which is right on track.

Tiger angel's hip continues to malfunction. She had a Cortisone injection under Ultrasound this week. The ultrasound indicated that it is a combination of bursitis and tendonopathy. She managed to get through similar problems with her Achilles by carefully following a specific treatment of eccentric exercises, so there's no reason why she won't be able to do it again this time. Pretty tough though (but then, so's she :-) ).

Gnome

A tale of two runs

2007-06-25T23:20:00.000+10:00

It's a couple of weeks since we blogged, and it seems like a lot has happened and nothing has happened at the same time. I won't go through it all in detail, but the salient points are;

Tiger Angel's German Measles turned out to be not measles, but an unknown virus, the only treatment for which was to wait. Treatment worked (eventually) and the rash and most of the itching has subsided.
Tiger Angel's hip scan showed no arthritis (excellent!!), but gave no indication of what may be causing her pain. New anti-inflams aren't having any particular effect. Don't really know where to go next. She's on zero activity at the moment, and hating it.
I'm slowly getting back into stride. Last week was my first 'marathon' week (> 42k) since January. It hurts to watch all the winter races that I missed last year go drifting quickly by again, but I guess my main aim for the moment is to get a good base back under my belt (safely!). I'm also looking forward to running with TA again just as soon as she can.
Tonight, we took a leap of faith and entered the City 2 Surf. We've asked for an A2 entry together. Last year TA was A2 & I was A1 (and then we both DNS'd with injury, but that's another story), and the year before she was A1 and I was A2. Hopefully this year we can actually run it together (even if we have to piggy-back each other)!
Having been gradually ramping up since I started running again (7 weeks in total), I think that it's time for a 'down' week this week. I'll just pretend that I'm tapering for GC :-)

So what's the tale of two runs I alluded to in the title? Well, on Saturday morning my aim was to do an hour's run while I was waiting for Micro's footy match to start. What a drag! I felt heavy and slow and uncomfortable, and the run was everything that I don't like about running. Anyhow, 60 min, 10.5k @ 5:40 pace. Sunday Evening, on the other hand, was everything a run should be. I felt great, was light on my feet, in a great rhythm, and the k's just flew by. Even the big hills seemed smaller than normal. Lovely!

The funny thing, though, was that when I analysed Sunday night's run (91 min, 15.75k @ 5:49 pace), it was slower than the sad-sack run on Saturday. In other words, how much I enjoy a run has nothing to do with how switched on my legs are, but just with how switched on my brain is. I must remember that next time I have an attack of the Blahs.

Gnome (who should be in bed after waiting up till way too late last night watching the web updates on our Western States heros...)

p.s. to all you heading for the Gold Coast this weekend - best of luck, enjoy yourselves, and make us jealous with your reports of mighty feats! :-)

I Can't Win a Trick Lately.

2007-06-14T13:42:00.000+10:00

I went to see the Dr today to get some test results and let him look at my hip as it still hurts every time I run. I'd, also, noticed a rash on my body when showering this morning so thought I'd show him that too.

Upshot of my visit was

my iron levels are finely in the desired range after 20 months - Yah!
my thyroid meds need reducing or I'll get osteoporosis
I have to have a scan on my hip to check if it's bursitis or possibly osteo-arthritis and the piece-de-resistance
he thinks my rash is German Measles so I'm to stay home under house arrest till he gets the blood test results. He's, also, checking my liver function and for Measles and Glandular Fever

I think Gnome needs to find a new model - this one's crap :-)

TA

Party Party!

2007-06-06T21:59:00.000+10:00

Happy day! Tiger Angel and I did a track session last night (200 firm, 200 firmer, 400 float, repeat 3 more times, plus warm ups, drills, strides & all that jazz beforehand) and then I ran the 4k home feeling really really strong. Sounds good, but it gets better!

This morning, I didn't hurt. I didn't ache. No problems walking down steps. No ill effects at all. First time since you know when.

((Gnome wanders off into the distance whistling happily...))

As expected...

2007-06-03T22:27:00.000+10:00

As expected, the imbalance dragon has been puffing his little bursts of fire at me. I went for a run on Monday morning, but only managed a few k before my knee started to hurt to the point where I had to stop. I did jog home again, but only because that was faster than walking. Not happy.

I had a physio appointment on Thursday afternoon, so no running until then. He confirmed that everything on my bad side was very tight, and a combination of very weak glutes and some muscle just above my knee with relatively strong quads was pulling my knee cap out of alignment, hence the pain. I don't know whether they're weak because I was protecting them for so long, or because of nerve damage, but the trick now is to strengthen them. To that end, he's given me some exercises that are supposed to do the trick, and I've got two weeks before I see him again to "make those muscles pump, baby"!

He gave me the OK to run, so we headed off to Run Club. It was;
- 1200 at AT pace. I'm still getting used to my pacing again and I started too fast, but brought it back after a quiet reprimand from Tim at the 400 mark.
- 10 minutes of rolling hills. I walked down the steepest parts to protect my knees.
- 10 minutes of 1min on / 1 min off.
My knee survived OK, but my thigh was pretty sore when Dr pain had 'released' all the tight bits. Finished off the evening with a bite to eat with the rest of the Run Clubbers down at a local.

Nothing on Friday, recovering (how come I have to recover after 5k??) for Saturday's Striders' 10k. Tiger Angel had volunteered to marshall before she found out she was clear to run, so I was running it on my own. Even as I was going off for a warm up I still had no idea of what I was aiming to do, so when Ben said he wanted to do sub 49 it sounded like a good idea to me. We sat behind the 50 minute pacer for the first 3 or 4 k, noting that his "putting time in the bank" had him running at about the same rate as I thought we needed to (I've never been a great fan of the time-in-the-bank theory, even on a hilly course like Lane Cove). Consequently, we were actually about the right time at the half way. We didn't rush the down hills, but used them to recover so we'd be ready for the later undulations and then the big rush of the final couple of k.

There were a couple of times around the 7-8k section where I thought that I was going to lose Ben, but I could hear that he was breathing cleanly and rhythmically, so I figured that he still had a bit more in him. To give him his absolute due, when I called for him to catch up, he responded immediately and was very quickly up on pace and he never dropped again. At the 9k I suggested that he go ahead and make the running, whereupon he promptly took the lead and pulled out a 4:30 to have us home in 48:43!

Since I started running again, I've been waiting for the day when it would all feel good again. I got that day on Saturday. Running down the hill with Ben brought back all those old feelings of just floating along that I love. Unfortunately, at about the 9k mark (just after Ben took the lead), my knee started complaining again. It wasn't bad like it had been on Monday so I had no problems getting home, but it was a reminder that I still have to build for a while yet.

This race was my focus from the day I got the OK to run, and I haven't thought past it at all. Alas, now is the time to look forward again. What's the 'Next Big Thing'? Dunno yet, but whatever it is starts tomorrow morning early... :-)

Gnome

I don't mind coming back...

2007-05-26T22:47:00.000+10:00

...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

2007-05-26T18:17:00.000+10:00

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

2007-05-20T19:43:00.000+10:00

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!

2007-05-19T16:48:00.001+10:00

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....

2007-05-11T22:31:00.000+10:00

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

2007-05-08T22:20:00.000+10:00

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!

2007-05-05T17:07:00.000+10:00

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

So Busy I forgot the 10% Rule

2007-04-25T13:26:00.000+10:00

At a staff meeting the other night it took about 3-4 gos to find a night that I was free for the next one. The girls always comment on how much I pack in to life but to me it's normal. Mind you it really makes me appreciate rest days :-).

As for training, it's bumped up quite a bit over the last 2 weeks. When I checked my totals I've already doubled March's k's and April isn't over yet. I'm feeling much better on my increased meds and am recovering much better from sessions. I do have some tiny niggles occasionally but they are just the muscles reacting to change.

I entered the SMH Half at the end of March so a few of us did a lap of the course the other day and I probably went a bit quicker than I should have. It turned out to be the same pace as I ran Striders in the Domain. I guess I'm hoping this means I can improve again at North Head next week.

TA

Limbo

2007-04-19T00:13:00.000+10:00

Limbo - n. A state of nothingness; inbetween.

Limbo - n. A West Indian dance requiring the dancer to bend ever further backwards to achieve an ever more difficult goal.

Yep, I think that just about describes it. I went to Dr Pain today, and as expected, he wants me to wait and find out from the Neurosurgeon in two weeks whether/when I can run again, so here I wait (Again. Still.)...

The good news is that the swimming is going swimmingly. I swam 1km continuously today (plus 300m warm up and 100m warm down both with fins which is definitely a step up on the struggle-to-the-other-end-then-gasp-for-a-few-minutes that use to constitute a swim session for me. It amazing what practicing every second day for three months can achieve :-)

Anyhow, it's bike tomorrow morning to work, and then an hour's walk while everyone else is running at Run Club (I'm not bitter; really :-) :-) ), and so the week continues...

Gnome

p.s. had a top time at the Canberra Marathon on Sunday. Drove down late Saturday night, stopping in a picnic area for a few hours kip in the car half way there. Only just arrived in time to wish a few friends good luck and then spent the morning riding around taking photos and cheering. It was so pleasing to see Uncle Dave get his new PB in fine style, and Tesso ripping in to her 50k (not to mention Nite-time-runner's remarkable improvement and too many others to mention), but I was really upset for Wayne (JD) and his battles with the Cramp Bear. It hurt so much just watching and waiting and seeing the time tick by; it's hard to imagine what it felt like for him being out there. Never know. Maybe it'll rain next year. Then we'll whip that course into shape just like we did at the Central Coast last year. Wadayareckon, JD? :-)

A blizzard of posts

2007-04-07T22:15:00.000+10:00

How's this? Three posts in one day (although one was just a reprint of our Oz Ironman report from Cool Running). Anyhow, I thought that I should do a quick update on where my health is at.

My Doc rang back a couple of days after I saw him to say that he'd spoken to the Neurosurgeon, and he was going to stay back after his normal consulting time to see me. This disturbed me somewhat - I'm not keen on being of the slightest bit of interest to medical people. :-)

It all turned out happily - no surgery - and I just have to continue my non-running exercise. As of Thursday, I'm back and riding to work (I had a trial ride up at Port on Monday just to make sure). I covered the distance slightly faster than average, so that was good. I'm either walking or swimming every day (well, except yesterday and today :-) ). On Thursday, I did my slowest ever lap of the bay - 63 minutes - but I think that's as fast as I can possibly walk. On Wednesday, my fins were starting to hurt my feet, so I took them off after 900m and did 400 straight with no fins! This from a man who used to drown after 50. I told you Tiger Angel is a great teacher :-)

Summary? I'm totally comfortable in my back and legs, and I can walk and swim and ride. Only thing I can't do now is run, at least until I see Dr Pain again in a few weeks. He'd better have something nice to say (like... "yes, I see no reason why you shouldn't start running again"...), but I won't be holding my breath. He cares too much about my health to let me do anything toooo stupid :-)

Gnome

Striders Domain 10k

2007-04-07T18:04:00.000+10:00

This week was busy.

Sunday - 80min run ( in between watching the swim and bike leg of ironman)
Monday - 30 min run ( 10 barefoot on beach) + some wts
Tuesday - abs + 40min bike session
Wednesday - 30 min walk + some wts + boxing session
Thursday - swim am and Runclub at night ( my first 3k time trial in 18months - 15.03)
Friday - did absolutely nothing for the first time in 4 weeks and my body ached all day!!
Saturday - Striders 10k at the Domain. Gnome was on marshalling duties.

Last month at Homebush I ran 58.48 but having done no hill work for over a year I didn't know what to expect on this course. I anticipated I would do about the same but was hopeful to dip into 57.5x. I worked out I needed to hit around 19.00min for each of the 3 laps. First hill I was stuffed and very scared at how I felt, 2nd hill was just as bad but I noticed I hit the 5k at 29.14 and this meant I was still on track. Third time up the hill I kept telling myself I was strong and then realized I was at the top turning for the steady incline. At the 8 k mark I felt really good and came home to finish in 57.04 ( second 5k - 27.50 ) for a 1.44 improvement on last month's 10k in spite of the wind and rain.

After drying off, we then enjoyed breakfast in Leichardt with Julia, Lorna (Owl) and Wayne (JD).

TA

Oz Ironman

2007-04-07T17:58:00.000+10:00

Just back from Port after a wonderful weekend and a very pleasant amble back down the coast (I think we ate our way back to Sydney - eating sensibly starts again tonight ). We've never seen an Ironman before, so everything had a touch of magic and a load of emotion. We saw Rohan's excitement before the start, Hairyleg's disappointment on the sidelines, Auntie's steely determination through the run and Miners' calm acceptance of a less-than-hoped-for day.

The crowd's self imposed silence during the 'a capella' National Anthem sent shivers down my spine. I think that if everyone's nerves were already on edge before then, that just tipped it over. I liked Hamburglar's description of the piranah-like start. One of these day's someone's going to act like a sheep dog and do the entire swim leg running across everyone else's backs .

We scored expert commentary from QueenB and Tux while watching T1, then retired to breakfast with some of the CR crew. After suitably stuffing ourselves at a local cafe, we camped right at the turn into the bike entry and heard Miners being called through on the start of his third lap but we were too far away to cheer. It was a top spectating position. As well as being in the shade, the run leg passed right by us too. Thus we got to cheer all the CRs we could recognise (a sad absence of yellow and blue out there today folks, with the notable exceptions of Rohan and Frank) both coming in off the bike and out to the run.

One disadvantage of knowing so many people out there was that they inconsiderately spaced themselves out around the course so that there was always someone 'just ten minutes' away from coming past, so we didn't get to lunch till after 3pm. This spectating at IM is a hard gig! Some of you competitors should try it some time.

From then until late, tiger angel, Tux and I hung out on the waterfront at the 20/41k mark. Strange just how tired people look at the 224km point in a race - some staggering, some walking, some just trying to 'pick it up' for the last k and others moving smoothly like they were just on their Sunday long run. I loved seeing the smiles on the competitors' faces as they came through the groups of cheerers - I hope we managed to lift a few spirits!

We only saw Rohan and Auntie afterwards, but if they were anything to go by, then there was an absolute load of elation in town. Very happy campers indeed! Congratulations to all you CRs, you made it one helluva weekend.

CR5k Bunny

2007-04-04T08:54:00.000+10:00

Early start on Saturday morning for the CR5k. I decided 27xx sounded good and discovered that Owl and Sista Chris were also keen for that. Brad, from Runclub was there for his first CR5k and decided to join us and Pipe (returning from injury) decided to hang in for as long as possible. We actually left at 28mins because we thought we might get mown down in the last k by the group targeting sub 16.

1k we did 5.27. This was looking good. 2k another 5.26, great. 3k, 5.27 , amazing. I started to pull away a bit here and Sista Chris came with me. 4k 5.22. At this point Chris moved ahead but I knew it was too early in the last k for me so just worked at holding the gap. About 250m from the end I picked it up and drew alongside and together we crossed the line for 26.58 (5.16 for last k). Absolutely amazed to take 57secs off last month and very happy to be heading in the right direction towards the old PBs.

Turns out I unwittingly acted as a bunny for Owl to chase and she managed a 16 sec PB. Good stuff :-)

One step forward...

2007-03-27T22:33:00.000+10:00

A while ago, I wrote

I'm trying to view it as a race where I've started at the back. I've already caught up to the sitters and I'm starting to make inroads on the standers. After that the walkers, then...

Since then, thanks to my little episode at 6ft, I've caught the standers, and as of this week I'm one of the walkers! Having been given the go-ahead to walk, I've been walking for about 1/2 an hour on the non-swimming mornings. Guess what? When you don't even walk for two months, everything just shrivels up. My shins ache just from the effort of striding out. Strange days indeed :-)

That's the good news. The less enticing news is that I went to my Dr this morning, and he's going to ring the Neurosurgeon to see if I should get into him more quickly. Although the pain has subsided, the leg weakness is just the same, and his concern is that the longer the nerves are damaged, the more chance of them never recovering. I'm trying not to dwell on it, but permanent leg weakness is a sobering thought.

There is a funny side though. When I was crossing the road this morning, I misjudged the available time between cars (I'm not used to walking across reads :-) ), and I found half way across that I had to get a hurry on so I broke into a jog. I was so wobbly and it was so comical that I burst out laughing at how ridiculous I must have looked. So here I am walking along giggling to myself when I look up to see a mother and child coming towards me, and she is clearly concerned about this giggling lunatic approaching her...

Lunatic Gnome :-)

Physio Graduation

2007-03-20T22:15:00.000+11:00

The last couple of weeks have seen me continue to mix up my training with swim, bike, run and wts and the body is holding up well. At the end of last Thursday's runclub where I did all bar a 200m, Tim commented that it was the first solid session I'd done in 18 months. That was nice to hear.

I caught up with my thyroid specialist last week and despite being the slimmest I've been for 20+ years, he told me I wasn't losing weight fast enough, my hands are cold, my pulse is too slow, my reflexes are far too slow and to up my meds by 50%! I protested the slow pulse was fitness but he gave me that 'dream on' look and said they were all symptoms of the thyroid not being up to scratch. Apparently I should be jumping out of my skin this week but I still managed a 2hr nana nap today.

The excellent news is I saw Dr Pain about my Achilles yesterday. Last time he felt it had gone backwards but after telling him I had had no problem in or after the 10k race a couple of weeks ago he checked it and said "much better." He reckons I need to keep doing some skipping and plyometric style exercises for at least 3 months before we can say the tendon won't snap but I don't need to see him. He joked that all he needs to do now is get Gnome better but then probably his other CR couple will get injured :-)

TA

A pretty good Birthday!

2007-03-13T22:37:00.000+11:00

Wasn't Saturday at Six Foot a great day? Even if you weren't there physically, reading all the reports on Cool Running takes you there emotionally. From the shouts and excitement when Fats appeared out of nowhere to claim the record till Horrie's grand entrance as the Grim Reaper, it was just a superb atmosphere. One day. One Day :-)

I spent most of the day sitting (of course) in the only spot I could find that would afford me reasonable photo opportunities, which happened to be just adjacent to the PA speakers. On on one of the rare times I ventured out of my seat, I walked in front of a speaker just as the announcer let out a bellow. Damn near deafened me, and I instinctively twisted and bent away from the noise. Of course, twisting and bending are two things that I'm not supposed to do, and my back repaid me instantly with pain to spare. Not happy, but later I noticed a strange thing. I could walk for longer without leg pain. Noice!

It appears that the shock movement actually relieved some of the pressure on the nerves, so that three days later, I can remain standing for as long as I like. My leg is still weak and I still can't make bits of me move, but for the moment, that's a small problem :-) I was due for another epidural injection on Thursday, but when I went to the Doc's on Monday, we decided that it wasn't necessary. What's more, I went swimming this morning for the first time in a month and did a k (with flippers). Apart from being more tired than normal, it went very comfortably. I'd call that a pretty good birthday present.

I have to remember that the underlying problem is still there and could return as easily as it went, so the appointment with the Neurosurgeon remains in place and I still have to be pretty careful. Regardless, as I sit here typing and listening to a birthday DVD (Elton John live - yes, I'm an old fogey) I'm a whole lot more relaxed than I have been for a while.

Gnome

That was fun :-)

2007-03-06T16:03:00.000+11:00

After doing the February CR5k and taking 60 secs off my Dec time I had to decide what to do the following Saturday - Striders 10k or Nepean Enticer. As the week went on, the gut said do Striders. So on Saturday morning I lined up at the VERY back to do my longest run in 15 months.

It had been suggested I'd do 58.43 but although I hoped to do under the 60 minutes I was not going to be ruled by my watch only my breathing. CR Chunderbolt decided to accompany me as he needed an easier run and we happily set off. We met up with a guy called Craig at about the 1.5k mark and he joined us. I told the guys that it felt great to have 2 male escorts looking after me and that they could chat while I just ran ( ha ha). Craig told us he was back to running after 10 years and had lost 15kg since Christmas.

We went through the 5k in 29.29 and I still felt good. At this point we started passing quite a few ahead of us (and gave some encouragement to Sista Chris Criniti ) and from about the 7k mark I picked it up a bit more. Craig was hurting a bit from his new orthotics and slowed a little but was not too far behind. Finished in 58.33 on the watch for a 25sec neg split and with an offical 58.48 on the Strider clock. (Takes a while to cross the start line with 360 runners ahead of you! ). Gnome was on timing duties and after we were all packed up we then enjoyed a post race breaky together.

Sunday we headed to the pool. Me for a recovery swim and Gnome to walk in the water. Gnome managed 200m of walking and another 200 of swimming. This was his first exercise in a month or so. It left him tired but happy.

Monday I did some wts in the morning and because I was to lead Runclub that night, I headed into the bay about 5pm to do my Tuesday easy 60 mins before Runclub. I know it wasn't Tuesday but I don't get to run the bay very often and it seemed a good chance. About 4k's into a very wet run I met CR Chonky and he joined me for the last 6k's including 2 barefoot laps of the oval at the end. We both commented on how quickly the time went. I dried off and waited around to see if anyone was coming to runclub but only one mad person like myself turned up, so he headed off to do a loop on his own. I ended up having a quick chat with Tim and got chided for running then, but he was pleased to see how well I'd backed up from Saturday.

As I did today's run yesterday I was told to do some walking so I walked to and from the High School as I was on canteen today. 60 minutes to get there and a shorter 40 home ( quickest route is 20mins). Tomorrow is rest day :-).

TA

Two milestones

2007-03-01T00:50:00.000+11:00

Passed two milestones today.

Number one was that Dr Pain declared that I was improving - my toe movement has progressed to a Grade 1. Apparently, last week's Grade zero means no activity, and Grade 5 is full movement/strength. If I concentrate hard and watch closely, I can lift my toe a fraction of a mm. Still, it's a start :-). Actually, there's a whole bunch of useful markers of improvement. I managed to feed the cat and get my cereal this morning! Up till now, I've had to sit down between the jobs. How cool is that?

The second milestone was that I had to let my belt out a notch this morning... Looks like I can't continue to eat a 50+ km/wk diet on 24 hr/day inactivity :-). Dr Pain told me to start walking in water and see how I handled it, so watch out - I'm going to be an olympic-level water-walker before you know it!

Gnome

p.s. Thankyou for your uplifting comments. I'm not actually a ray of sunshine all the time (just ask TA! :-) ) , so there were a few times when your posts really lifted me out of the doldrums. Thanks.

p.p.s. I asked for a sitting-down-job at striders on Saturday, so I'm told that I'll be on timekeeping. Just remember, for those of you running, a signifcant PB is only a blank cheque away... :-) :-) :-)

One month on

2007-02-23T21:03:00.000+11:00

It is one month to the day since I last ran. This is not a good thing.

Nothing really to report. Nothing much has changed over the week. Sometimes I think it's improving, then I realise it isn't. Ah well. Maybe next week...

Gnome

It's life Jim, but not as we know it...

2007-02-16T16:40:00.000+11:00

Things got a bit ugly there this week. For some reason on Monday night, my back went entirely cactus, to the extent that the only way I could move on Tuesday (and I only tried it once) was by crawling. Lots of pain killers, no effect. Couldn't stand, couldn't sit, could only lie in one position (foetal). Not good. Getting to the Hospital on Wednesday wasn't fun, but at least I found that I could sit in the car seat for some reason. The procedure itself turned out to be essentially painless, but I had to lie completely still and on my front (which, as it wasn't my good friend the foetal position, was in itself rather painful). Added to all that, I stupidly lay with my good ear on the pillow, so that with the noise of the CT scanner, I couldn't hear the doctor & nurse. You should have seen me go through the roof when they unexpectedly slapped some cold betadine in the middle of my back! :-) I'm sure they do it just for fun.

Wednesday evening - no improvement. Thinking that it's all a waste of effort. I'm not impatient; really I'm not! :-)
Thursday morning - hmmm, I seem to be able to stretch a bit and sit up a bit.
Thursday evening - wow, I can walk to the other end of the house (provided I sit down again immediately).
Friday morning - gets own breakfast. Sits in office chair mostly comfortably for a couple of hours (working, unfortunately). Gets own lunch, but finds that there is still a limit to how long I can stand up (which is unfortunately shorter than it takes to make lunch).

OK. I'm still not particularly patient, but I'm trying to view it as a race where I've started at the back. I've already caught up to the sitters and I'm starting to make inroads on the standers. After that the walkers, then... Hey, it's all good :-)

Gnome

New Blogger Test

2007-02-10T21:50:00.000+11:00

If you got this, then you're seeing posts from the new blogger. Welcome to the new world ;-)

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Short anatomy lesson

2007-02-10T20:54:00.000+11:00

Here's a sad ol' picture for you...

...my back.

The yellow line is a normal disk, the blue line is "medium to severe degeneration of L5/S1" and the red line is a "moderate disk extrusion at L4/L5". What that all means in layman's language is that the 'red' disk is pushing through onto my spinal chord, producing all sorts of sharp pains down my left leg when I'm vertical. I'm not keen on waiting the 6 months that it will (may) take to resolve itself, so I'm having cortisone injections next week which should get me comfortably vertical in about a week, though not yet running for some undefined time after that. I'm also assured that the procedure and its immediate aftermath is extremely painful, so I can't exactly say that I'm looking forward to it.

Anyhow, the short term result of all this is that I withdrew from 6ft on Friday, and I have no idea when I will run competitively again. Ah well, better go and log on to CoolSwimming... :-)

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p.s. looks like this is the last post to the old version of blogger. I'll post a brief test post to the new version in a little while. If you're using bloglines and you see this one but you don't see the next, then please go and manually re-subscribe. When I re-subscribed the other day to some of the other recalcitrants who have only just been pushed kicking and screaming to the new blogger, I found that I had to pick the last 'feed' on the list to get it to work. The first 'feed' was apparently still pointing to the old blogger. Good luck! :-)

Speaking of Tiger Angel

2007-02-04T16:41:00.000+11:00

We travelled to the regatta centre this morning at the much more sleep-friendly time of 6:30 for the All Womens' Triathlon (along with Cheri & Rachel - CR's wildthing and mouse - and their doting entourages). Tiger angel has been quietly and slowly ramping things up, so while she's still only up to the enticer length (250/10k/2.5k), she was really relaxed going into it, and with good reason.

We don't know the times yet (if ever - tri NSW was the organiser, and they don't have a history of being particularly well organised :-) ) because both of us forgot to start our watches, and the various waves went off at random times. However, by looking at the time stamps on photos that I took at the start and end, it appears that she's pulled another 30 seconds or so off last month's record breaker! What's far, far better though is that when she finished, she just sat down and started chatting about the race and all the things that had happened like she'd just been for a stroll around the park with friends.

Talk about stoked! It was only the other day that I said to her "I can't wait for the day that you can go for an hour's run and then say 'That was fun. Well, what's next?'", and only a few days later, here we are. The strategy has been for a long slow redevelopment, but it is clearly paying off in spades, so there's no reason to go changing it now.

Anyhow, no tri report would be complete without a photo, so here's the water exit.

The curse of Dr Kuah...

2007-02-04T16:23:00.000+11:00

Actually, there's no curse; I just like the sound of the title :-)

I'm off to the aforementioned doctor tomorrow for scans to make sure that I don't have a bulging disk or something like that. Something is playing havoc with the nerves running down my left leg, making life generally less than comfortable. I feel fine when I'm sitting, but unfortunately no one ever got terribly fit by sitting a lot! In the last couple of days, I've had a few good hours, so maybe things are settling down. So, till I know what's happening, I'll just keep swimming (wasn't it lucky that after all these years, I'd finally plucked up the courage to ask to be taught just before this all happened) and we'll wait...

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p.s. Of course, the worst part of this is that I can't, in all good conscience, whinge about it after all that tiger angel has been through. That doesn't mean that I don't whinge; it just means that I can't do it in good conscience ;-) :-)

Now, speaking of tiger angel...

Something new, something old...

2007-01-27T15:38:00.000+11:00

I had a shot on Tuesday at that Hill Bounding I talked about recently. It was quite interesting. We have a small soccer oval near us with a very steep slope for spectators - probably about 20m up at marginally less than 45 deg. Turning right or left at the top of that leads you down a much more gentle 100m or so. After a couple of k warm up, I stretched and then started the session.

Very high knees & arm action, driving from heels on the ground to toes pointing down at the high point of the step, bounding up the slope but only moving forward very slowly (ie very small steps) so that it takes a little while to get to the top. As noted in the stuff I read (and also mentioned by Dr Pain when I talked to him about it), the heart rate goes through the roof pretty quickly, so it's not a session for people on low-HR training. At the top, run down the gentle slope, leaning down the hill and keeping the cadence high. The idea is to continue onto a flat area for a little while, but on this oval you just hit fence! :-) Finally, walk back to the start as recovery, and repeat.

I ended up doing 7 reps, as I felt good the whole way through. After I got home and cooled down, I discovered that maybe 7 reps were too many... The tops of my calves decided that they were going to spend the rest of the *week* complaining. Still, it's exactly the same spot that started to give me grief at the end of the Quarry Rd laps last week, so it looks like it's doing the right thing, and it'll definitely stay in the training repertoire (albeit with a few less reps).

So, that's the new. The old, alas, is that my back decided to go west again on Thursday morning. I got out of bed and could hardly walk. I still managed the ride into work (for some odd reason, the riding position was not uncomfortable), but I had to ring tiger angel and ask her to pick me up at the end of the day. Hence, no Run Club, and no Megalong to Pluvi that was planned for Saturday. I'm sure that run was going to hurt, but not doing it hurts more :-(

I had a chat to Dr Pain, and his words of wisdom were "see me 9:30 Monday, give it lots of warmth and lots of gentle movement, like water walking, running and swimming". Hence, I went to the pool on Friday, doing 10 min water running to warm up, and then swam with flippers for 600m. It felt pretty smooth, though on the last 50 I started to notice a bit of tension in my back. (I did try a final 50m without flippers, which was an utter joke. Any semblance of form went out the window as self preservation and a desperate desire to breathe asserted itself. :-) ).

So here I sit, feeling miserable about missing my private Megalong massacre, but still hopeful of doing it next week (or the week after, or... :-))

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Addenda

2007-01-21T21:31:00.000+11:00

A couple of notes regarding yesterday's post...

1. The swimming is to strengthen my upper body for the mountain run. Nothing more. Sheesh! Interestingly, my weight is 1.5 kg up but my body fat % is slightly down, so I guess that it may be helping. Don't want it to get higher though. It's a fine line between having the strength to handle the hills and carrying the extra weight around.

2. It was Angel (our daughter) who had her wisdom teeth out. Sorry about the confusing nomenclature.

3. Lucky that we ran through Bobbin Head yesterday. Today it's closed (and evacuated) because of bush fires. What a difference a day makes...

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[edit] p.s. I sent my entry in for 6ft tonight. No turning back now!

So much fun!

2007-01-21T00:14:00.000+11:00

I had so much fun today - just like a kid again!

I did a 20k bush run down to Bobbin Head and back with the striders 6ft training crew, but that wasn't the fun thing (that was just hard, but necessary, work). Tiger Angel did her weights session, then tried out a new swim squad, and then ran a gym session for a client, but I'd say that they all fell into much the same category...

Nup, the fun came when she gave me another swimming lesson this afternoon. I couldn't believe it. All up I swam about 600m, which I know is just part of a warm up for some of you, but for me, that's flying! I started to cramp a bit after about an hour (not sure exactly how long - I wan't paying any attention to the time), so we called it quits, but then we started just playing around in the water like kids; you know, stuff like how far can you swim under water, and trying to do tumble turns without ending up in the next lane. (Actually, TA comes out perfectly in line. It's me that gets directionally challenged :-)). I don't recall how long it is since we just mucked about. Really should do it more often... Mind you, TA was a pretty tired bunny by the end of her 4th session of the day.

Fun aside, the most encouraging part was right at the end when TA described a breathing drill where you breathe after 1 stroke, then 3, then 5, 7, 5, 3, 1, etc, so I thought I'd give it a go. Bearing in mind that I'd been breathing unilaterally all session (when I remembered to breathe, but that's another story), I was amazed to find that not only could I do it, but it was probably the best I'd swum all day too! Wonders, once again fail to cease :-)

____________________________________

So what else this week? Working backwards, on Friday morning I accompanied TA on her tempo session (10 min warm up, 4 min tempo, 2 min recovery, repeat, and 10 min cooldown). TA was surprised by how fast she went on the tempo sections - probably a min/k faster than she expected. Good session!

Thursday was a hill sandwich at Run Club. 4 x 400 track, 3 x Callan Park hill (about 250m @ a 1 in 10 grade?), finishing with an 800 and a 400. I was slower on the hills than I would have preferred, but at least I was consistent (0:54, 0:54, 0:53). TA didn't run this session, as she was running it. Hmmm. Let me rephrase that. As FreeSpirit is on holidays, TA was conducting the session, and thus she didn't take part in it. :-)

Tuesday is mid-week-longish-run day, but I shortened it a bit to 12k because I slept in a bit. Average pace 5:26, so not one of the most spectacular runs I've done.

Monday's hills session was cancelled as I was up at the hospital with Micro and Angel, who were both having all 4 wisdom teeth out. Ouch! I guess that's a pretty good excuse for a day off hills :-)

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Swimming?? Swimming!! (Huh!!??!!)

2007-01-14T17:54:00.000+11:00

Guess what? As of this last week, tiger angel has started to teach me to swim. Yep, the old brick himself now aspires to be a bona fide floating, breathing(!), 1000m-in-nonchalant-style swimmer! And what's more, on the basis of two lessons, I think that there's a moderate chance of it happening too. Wonders will never cease (though not such a wonder when you consider who the teacher is).

So what brought on this change? Some Road to Damascus conversion to the semi-aquatic multi-sports? The sight of tiger angel sweeping all before her in her lead-all-the-way victory in last week's tri?? Well, no, actually. It can be actually be traced back to this article (this one is interesting too) which says that good mountain running needs swim & cycle training as well as straight running. As I already do a bike session once a week, I figured that a swim session wouldn't go astray as well, and so here I am... If blog entries terminate suddenly, you'l know that I'm on the bottom of a pool somewhere, trying to work out which way is up :-)

As for the rest of the week, I was tossing up whether to nominate it as a 'down' week, but some back pain made that decision for me. Turns out that a tumble I took last week over an errant piece of footpath put my pelvis out of alignment. A quick trip to the physio has mostly fixed that, though I'll still have to go again this week because there's something pinching down there :-(

Thursday night at run club was a tough opening session for the year. 4x200, 4x400, 3x500 (push the last 100) and 1x800. The focus was on good form rather than top speed, and the recoveries were relatively short (again - not supposed to be top speed). Very happy to be back, and very happy with the evenness (the 500s were 1:31+0:19, 1:31+0:19 & 1:32+0:19), and James and I really pushed each other at the end of the 800 which was a lot of fun!

On Saturday I fronted up to Quarry Rd for a planned 2 laps with the Strider's 6ft Training Group. I've done 1 & 1/2 laps a few times quite easily, and I assumed that the extra half lap wouldn't be an issue. WRONG! I was smashed by that last climb from the bridge to the Hornsby end. A lot of the 6ft-no-worries attitude disappeared during that last 20 minutes. The first leg was 39:04, the 2nd was 5 seconds faster, the third 2 minutes slower, and the last was another 2 minutes slower again (in other words, a 6 minute positive split - not something to write home to mum about!) .

I did a recovery run with TA this morning (7km @ 6:45 pace) and felt pretty blah all the way. Tomorrow's supposed to be hills, but luckily (for me, not them), angel and micro are both going to have their wisdom teeth out, so there won't be any time for running, which means that I have an extra day to recover from Saturday...

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p.s. Tesso, the CR cap behind TA in the photo was Mouse.

Bling! :-) :-)

2007-01-07T22:11:00.000+11:00

I'm not normally lost for words when it comes to writing these posts, but I'm really struggling to get my thoughts in line and down on the page this time. I get a big smile on my face every time I think back to this morning.

Last week, tiger angel ran her first CR5k in a year. Today, she ran her first triathlon (enticer length - 250m swim, 10k ride, 2.5k run) in almost 2 years. Clearly, she is still below her best, so this was to be a gentle "re-entry" to the sport; a metaphorical dipping of the toe in the water, so to speak. The plan, as best I understand it, was to take it easy, not blow up through over exertion, and finish vertical & smiling(ish!). Mostly, things went to plan.

After a late night at a friends 50th (why do people have to turn 50 the night before important races?) and a very early morning (4:45am), TA's nerves were not what you'd call settled, and breakfast (how do I say this nicely? umm...) didn't exactly get digested. Not an auspicious start.

We met up with a whole bunch of CR friends out there - wildthing and gps Rob (aka Mr WT), Ellie80, mouse & nite_time_runner, Nihao & Mr Nihao, and Mango. WT, mouse & TA were doing the enticer, while Mango, Ellie, Nihao & Mr Nihao opted for the longer Sprint version. NTR, gpsRob and I formed the ever present and vital cheer squad. :-)

From my vantage point, I thought that TA was strong-but-gentle through the whole race - ie she always looked in perfect form and control, but also looked like she could easily step it up a few notches if she really wanted to. I understand from subsequent conversation that there were no further notches available; the spirit may be very stong, but the body still leaves a fair bit to be desired... After finishing (in 44:02 by my watch - the results haven't been published yet), she flopped onto the ground and curled up in foetal position, utterly spent, and it took a long time to recover.

So (he asks retorically) am I smiling? Consider these things.

First in age group (Bling!). Now to be fair, we knew that bling was a certainty because there were only two entries in her category, and it appears that the other lady either didn't finish or didn't start. Either way, 'ya gotta be innit to winnit'. Much more importantly, though...
Fastest time ever. Yep, a pb in a come-back race running at half throttle! How cool is that! And then, just to add icing to an already overloaded cake,
Nothing from the achilles. No pain, no tightness, not even noticed at all either during or after the race. This has been one of those little mental niggles (aka doubts) that has been hanging around all through the year. You know the type. "When everything else is fixed and functioning again, will I be able to run, or will this achilles pain stop me for ever?". Well, it appears as though that little bugbear has been put to bed for a while.

I think I'll finish with some photos that sum up the day perfectly...

Power

Exhaustion

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Out with the old, in with the new

2007-01-01T22:00:00.000+11:00

...but first, a little of the "old" (so 2006) stuff to tidy up. TA and I fronted up for the CR5k on Saturday morning - the first time that she's been back there as a runner for a year or so. She ran with Ellie, and by all accounts they happily chatted triathlon stuff the whole way. In spite of aforementioned chatting, they still ran 28:55 (splits 6:19, 5:48, 5:29, 5:37, 5:38, 0:04 (17m)). I like the tale that those numbers tell. With the run home as well, that was both the fastest and the furthest that TA has run since the CC Half in Dec 05. She's feeling a bit stiff now, but that's far from unexpected.

I ran with Wayne & Ray (CRs Johnny Dark & Eagle) in JD's sucessful tilt at sub 21. We got to the 4k mark at about 16:30, and so when Ray suggested that I run on ahead, I decided to see if I could pull out a sub 4 minute k and get down towards the pb zone. I surprised myself again by only missing the pb by 3 seconds (splits - 3:56, 4:13, 4:07, 4:16, 3:50). Next month's run might be interesting :-).

And so to the new year. As part of my 6ft training, I ran the Black Stump Fat Ass run this morning. Having never seen it before, I had no real idea of how long I'd take, but judging by last year's results for people I know, I figured that 4:15 might be possible, 4:30 was probable. I didn't feel overly fast or powerful at the start, and after running the first couple of k with Rob (Mr WT), I suggested that he not hang back. Luckily, I just made it on to the first ferry (bit of a sprint for the last couple of hundred metres), but then a toilet stop ate up most of the time advantage I'd gained.

Somewhere along the leg out to the castle, I realised I was feeling good, and started to pick people up. The further I went, the stonger I felt, which I don't think is the way it is supposed to happen :-). I missed the ferry by about a minute, but used the time to fuel and hydrate - and watch all the people I'd passed catch up. Ah well, swings and roundabouts.

The last leg up the hill is ugly, ugly, ugly - absolute mountain goat stuff - but with the possibility of a sub 4 hour finish on hand, we pushed it pretty well. As soon as we reached the top, I opened up along the road. A quick calculation indicated that a 3:45 was even possible, and sure enough, I stopped the clock at 3:44:22. I don't often yell at the end of an event, but I let out a fair old bellow as I finished this time. That ranks up there with the CC half result last month, both in terms of how good I felt at the end, and the surprise I got with the time achieved. All up, a pretty good way to start a year. I may have mentioned in previous posts that I was having some difficulty drumming up enthusiasm for 6ft, but after today, I'm having difficulty no longer. :-)

And so, to a final look back. It's been a golden year for me, and a lead balloon year for tiger angel. From a purely running point of view, the best that could be said for her is that the year is over. And yet, it was a year in which we saw her guide the training of a growing number of friends, and started to see some of the concrete results of that effort in their lives; it was a year in which we learned (again) just how much can be achieved in the face of adversity; and once again we learned just how strong tiger angel really is.

What's 2007 going to hold for us? Dunno - that's God's problem. Our confidence doesn't have to be in our capabilities, but in his rock solid compassion. Bring it on! :-)

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p.s. I just looked at my stats for the year. According to the trusty Garmin, I ran 1989.4km in 2006. You'd think that I could have managed to fit in an extra 10.6 k run some time in those 365 days, wouldn't you...

Kinda preoccupied

2006-12-27T21:56:00.000+11:00

My, but it has been a long time since we visited blogland. Happy (belated) Christmas to you. I hope that you had a good one - we certainly did :-)

The long absence from blogging coincided with a long absence from running - sometime in late November we decided to completely renovate the family room, kitchen, lounge and study. What's more, we decided to have it finished before hosting tiger angel's family on Christmas day. That translated into 6am to 1am working on the house, 7 days a week (with a small break for work in the middle each day - think of it as a recovery period :-) ) for pretty much all of December. Alas, running - like all other happy distractions - had to take a back seat.

Still, we finished late on Saturday night, meaning that we were able to spend Christmas eve (TA's birthday) shopping for her birthday present and preparing for the onslaught of the rellos - and, in my case, doing one and a half laps of Quarry Rd. Apart from one 24k run with the Strider's 6ft training group, that was my first run since the Central Coast half. That's a long time between drinks, but I was glad to see that everything was still apparently functioning OK.

That one was followed up on boxing day with a 1 hour run up to the top of a mountain and back near my sister's in Newcastle. Unfortunately I didn't pack the Garmin in the rush, so I don't have good details... I was supposed to run today, but got engrossed in doing absolutely nothing for the first time in a month, so I never got around to it. Ah well, there's always tomorrow... :-)

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Singing in the rain :-)

2006-12-04T22:01:00.000+11:00

Turn back now! This is a long one... :-) You have been warned.

Back when injury kept me out of the C2S and W2B (and limited me to pacing the Sydney half), I set my sights on running the Central Coast Half as my near-term major goal. The stated reason was that it was to be a validation of my new "body-friendly" training plan, but I guess I also wanted to see one more pb fall before the end of the year. At first, I was just aiming at some slight improvement, but seeing Gen(CR Evie)'s run at C2S inspired me to set my sights somewhat higher. In a rush of blood, I announced to the listening world (hi mum!) that I was going to run 94:xx. Given that my pb at that stage was in the high 98s, this was a fair leap of faith.

My first chance to test progress came at the Strider's Internal Half in October. Result, a 1 minute PB. Then two weeks ago at Smithfield, I chased Johnny Dark for another 30 second pb. 2 PBs in a month, but still 3 minutes off the desired 94. Subtly, I transformed that 94 goal into a 95:xx, hopeful that the course at The Entrance could give me 2 minutes, but skeptical that I could get 3. Regardless, confidence was growing all the time, with the knowledge that I was going to be running with Gen, Wayne & Tim (CRs Evie, Johnny Dark and Redback), and that we all wanted that same 95. Sadly, last week Evie got called interstate and was unable to run. Not fair!

I woke up at about 3am on Sunday morning and listened to the pouring rain for a while but it didn't worry me - I don't mind rain. We miscalculated a bit with the travel time, and arrived at about 5:50am. At the time we thought it was a mistake, but after taking 30 seconds to register and later seeing the enormous queues that formed, it turned out to be an inspired mistake :-)

At the start, Wayne, Tim and I reaffirmed our pacing strategy - 4:30's the whole way. I knew that there was only a couple of k before we hit trees, so we only had a couple of useful Garmin measurements to lock into the pace. I also figured that there wouldn't be many/any km markers, and so from then on we'd be running blind. Although I had every good intention to stick with the others, traffic in the early stages broke us up very quickly and we never quite regrouped. If it was a bus, then it was a fairly long one! I knew that Wayne was just behind, but I couldn't see Tim.

It started to bucket down at about 5k, and the puddles turned to rivers. I noticed that many people were trying to run around the water, so a number of times I overtook people simply by plowing straight through. I was already sodden, so what more could a little puddle do? :-)

Quite a few times on the outward journey, I questioned our pace. It didn't seem 'hard' enough, but we were consistently overtaking people so I decided to trust my inbuilt speedo and stick with it. I was very pleased to hit the turnaround at bang on 45 minutes, which allowed for a reasonable fade plus the extra few hundred metres tacked on the end. Wayne was just behind, and Tim only a fraction further back. Both said to keep going, so I did :-)

From here on, it was just a matter of picking someone up ahead and trying to reel them in. I noticed from about 15k that my breathing was gradually getting heavier and heavier, but it wasn't uncomfortable. There was one woman ahead who, no matter how many people I passed, managed to pass them too. WhenI realised that I was finally starting to make inroads on her, she became my major focus (don't tell tiger angel :-) :-) ). About 2 k out, I got right on her tail, but there was no way she was going to let me pass without a fight. I sat on her heels for 500m, then finally drew level. We exchanged pleasantries (like it was a daily stroll) and ran side by side for another few hundred, but on one corner I got a better line and she dropped.

I'd been conscious for a while that I wanted to make the last k count, so when I got to the last little bridge, I straightened up, settled the stride a little longer and just went for it. The last time that I had looked at my watch was at the 9k turn-around (4.5k from the end) and at that time I had calculated that a new pb was fairly certain, and that the 95 was possible. Without any hint of hyperbole, I think that I got one of the greatest shocks of my life when I finished at 90:57, a full 6:16 under my 2-week-old pb. I seriously had no idea at any stage of the run that anything like that was possible. I'm still shocked and staggered.

I know that I've mentioned them a couple of times already, but Gen gave me the initial hope that something was possible, and Wayne & Tim encouraged me enormously during some long and difficult Star runs. Much thanks to all of you! Everyone should have encouragers like you three.

Most of all and as always though, my beloved tiger angel is my inspiration. She's coming back, slowly and sensibly, but she's a-comin'. And when she does, I want to be there, not off on some training run of my own. Yes, I'm going to do 6ft, and do it as well as I can. But, number one priority is TA's training. I've had my golden year. This next one belongs to her :-)

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb...

2006-11-26T21:29:00.000+11:00

...dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, stupid (geddit?).

On the way back from the 5k challenge yesterday, I remarked to Ben (CR Chunderbolt) that as long as I got through Sunday's long run OK, then I would have managed to get to a goal race uninjured for the first time in ever(?). As usual, I spoke too soon. I noticed this morning as I was getting out of bed that my right quad twinged. I don't remember straining it yesterday, but I was doing lots of squatting while working on the house, so that may have strained something. Anyhow, I though no more about it until I was stretching a bit before the Striders Star and felt the twinge again. I went for a bit of a jog and it felt OK, so I decided to continue. Like I said above, dumb, dumb, dumb!

Tim (CR Redback) and I started with the 6:10am group again, and again they shot off like they had something to prove. We had already decided to do a shortened run (23k) so we figured that we'd try to hang on until the first short cut at about 12k. At about the 10k point, the group was very strung out, and I arrived at the back just in time to hear the tail end of someone giving the group a good dressing down and telling all those who wanted to run faster to run ahead, because from now on the group was going to do the 'right' speed. The usual suspects ran off, and at least for the next couple of k until we turned off, the pace seemed a bit more sensible. Much thanks to whoever it was :-)

During the course of the run, my leg was starting to get a little tight, but I kept going (why, oh why?). It still felt ok(ish) when I finished, but as I cooled down it started to hurt. A fair bit of self massage plus an ice pack (took it to church with me and left it on during the sermon) plus lots more squatting during the rest of the day has it no longer bothering me, but it's still sore to touch. Looks like this week's taper with lots of short, sharp work has just become a taper with not much of anything. Ah well, it wouldn't be a goal race if I didn't carry some kind of injury into it :-(

As for the rest of the week, I did another 5 reps of 5 min @145bpm, 1 min recovery on the bike on Tuesday morning. The idea is to raise the lactic threshold without thrashing my legs. Wednesday morning I covered 15k at 5:20 pace overall, though that included 3k in the bush which slowed things down rather. Thursday at Run Club we did 3 x 2k reps. I was really pleased with the evenness. The 500m splits were
1:54, 1:54, 1:53, 1:49 - 7:30 total
1:56, 1:52, 1:54, 1:49 - 7:31 total
1:57, 1:55, 1:54, 1:51 - 7:37 total
I had ideas of pushing the last 500m, but there was nothing at all left. That's the way reps should be, so no complaints there.

Finally, Saturday morning was the CR5k. Not a bad turnout, considering that CR drinks were not too many hours earlier. I ran with Wayne (CR Johnny Dark) off 21, with the bold goal of him breaking 21 for the first time. Alas, we fell tantalisingly short, but it was still his best time for a number of years.

With a bit of luck (and a whole lot of hard work), our next post next week will record a new pb of 95:xx, and a great set of times from the 95 train (currently at least JD, Redback, Rags and myself). Unfortunately, Evie has been called away at the last minute for work and won't be able to be there, so the bus is going to be minus one piston :-(

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Oooo, I ache all over...

2006-11-19T22:00:00.000+11:00

Starting at (almost) the end, I spent most of yesterday (Sat) on the end of a concrete grinder turning parts of my family room floor into dust. By the end of the day I could hardly move, and went to bed at 9:30pm to sleep the sleep ofthe truly weary. I still prepared for SMC, on the basis that a run might free up all those locked up muscles, and if I felt too under the weather then I could drop back to the 10 or 5k. As it was, I was able to move reasonably freely this morning (Sun), so stuck with the half as planned.

I went out with the intention of keeping Johnny Dark in sight, and if I could keep to 4:30's then all the better. He shot off in the first few k, and then settled down to a reasonable pace about 500m ahead. From there on, there he stayed. I slowed up a little on the hill, but looking at the splits later, I realised that I never really sped up again afterwards. The split for the first 10k was 44:04, and for the second was 47:58 (eurg!). Even allowing an over-generous 1 minute for the hill (which falls into the second 10k), that's still a positive split of 3 minutes.

I knew that I was slowing down alot and I was beating myself up a bit about it, but then I realised that a) I'd just done a PB (by 30 sec), and b) I had worked myself into a state of exhaustion the evening before. I'll tell you what though; I've never felt so sore at the end of any race before. So, Central Coast still looks hopeful (provided I taper and eat OK, and don't beat myself up working on the house the day before :-) )

So what else happened this week? Tuesday, I had access to my car, so I headed to the pool. unfortunately I forgot my towel (Doh!), so I headed home again and did an AT session on the bike (5 x 5min @ 145bpm and 1 min recovery between). Wednesday was one of those lovely runs - it felt light and easy. 15k at 4:54 pace. I wish they were all like that. Run Club on Thursday night was 6 laps of the hospital hill loop, with a hills ladder in the middle. Despite the wind (awful!), I kept things pretty even - 3:32, 3:37, 3:35, 3:35, 3:38, 3:34. Then on Saturday, I managed to get to the 6ft training group run on time, and we did 13k from Roseville Bridge up to Lindfield and back again. Nice run. I wish 6ft would be that nice :-)

Finally, in answer to some questions - 2P, the 6ft announcement was carefully hidden away in this post :-), and Tesso, Windsprints are just any series of sprints followed by a short rolling recovery. Two common ways to do them are to run 30 sec hard and 30 sec easy for 10 minutes, or to run the long side or diagonal of a soccer field hard, the end easy, and then repeat.

Gnome

Easy week (??)

2006-11-12T21:53:00.000+11:00

As noted in the last update, the scheduled easy week started early last weekend, courtsey of the miserable weather and a severe case of Sudden Onset Shopaholics Disease (SOSD).

With the intent to keep the week short and sharp rather than short and slow, Tuesday was a windsprint session (1k warm up, 10 x 110m with 80m float recovery, and 1k cool down). Splits were 22, 24, 24, 22, 22, 23, 22, 22, 22, which'll do me :-). Started to feel the hip flexor (or adductor or something in that area) that always has a quiet whinge when woken up to do sprints, so happy to stop at 10.

Wednesday was to be a threshold run, aiming for 5k on a hilly course at 1/2M goal pace (4:30). Did exactly that (though the middle k was a bit sluggish). Generally happy.

Thursday night at run club was the first track session for the season (because we finally have enough light thanks to daylight saving) and guess what Tim has planned? Yep, windsprints! Aaarrrgggghhh! We started with 2 x 800 (400 splits were 1:36, 1:43, then 1:33, 1:38) followed by 10 minutes of windsprints. Finished with 3 x 400 and 2 x 200, but as my groin was complaining about 2 sets of sprints in the one week, I backed off and ran with Micro for most of them, and then called it a night with one to go. Discretion being the better part of valor and all that... :-)

My training diary note for Thursday was "Not one of those great nights. I feel like I'm slowing down, not speeding up. Losing confidence about Central Coast". I don't remember writing that, so I guess that's what diaries are for.

On Saturday, Mr WT and I were supposed to meet up with the Striders 6ft training group for the first run of the season. Because of trafic delays on his part and consumate stupidity on mine, we missed the start, so we drove up the the turnaround point and joined them there. It was a really nice run through the bush from Thornleigh to North Ryde and back, with the exception that the climb up to Thornleigh oval at the end was a killer. I know that 6ft will be immesurably worse, but it was the first session...

Thus endeth the 'down' week, so this morning was back to normal. I didn't want to travel to the Star, so I just did a local 23k on my own. Felt particularly ugly (the run, not me), a fact borne out by the first 3 ks (6:20, 6:10 & 6:10), but I picked it up a bit after that to end up averaging 5:25, which is in the middle of my long run pace range, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Still, it was just one of those get-it-done, not-particularly-enjoyable slogs.

Rest day tomorrow, so I guess I'll just have to slog my way through that too :-) :-)

Gnome

p.s. Tiger angel has been getting up to all sorts of good stuff, but I'll leave her to tell you about it (and leave you to pester her if she doesn't... :-))

The dragons are sleeping, and so is the mind…

2006-11-06T13:05:00.000+11:00

The good news is that it looks like the dragons are sleeping again. There’s been no niggles since Wednesday. The bad news is that it appears to be affecting my brain!

On Saturday morning after the Striders 10k, I was confidently proclaiming a good pb on the hardest course of them all. It was a good race, well run with a 3:50 last k, so I was pretty happy. Unfortunately, when I got home to check the details, I found that my pb was actually a minute faster than I had remembered, and so my 30sec pb was actually 30 sec over! Duh! Funny how you can go from feeling so good about a run to so ordinary, when nothing about the run actually changed??

We had TA's dad's 79th birthday at our place on Saturday night, so when I crawled into bed at midnight, I decided that a 5am start in the cold and rain was not necessary and declined to set the alarm. Of course, I had plans to do 20-30k in the middle of the day. Alas, the best laid plans, etc etc. TA and I went shopping after church and got all excited about new kitchen stuff (doesn't take much to excite us these days... :-) ), and that run never did eventuate. Ah well, this coming week is a scheduled down week, so I guess I just started it a day early!

Gnome

p.s. congrats to lean, mean running machines Owlly and Johnny Dark for inflicing severe damage on long-standing pbs. Just great stuff! :-)

Bit of a scare

2006-11-03T09:00:00.000+11:00

I got new shoes on Saturday (that's not the scary bit), but I didn't wear them on Sunday's long outing. Hence, first wear was Tuesday morning (yep, no car again, so no water running. It appears that that particular plank in the don't-get-injured policy is out of the picture for now. Anyhow, I digress...).

I went to a different local oval and did 5 x 1k reps (actually 960m, but I won't tell if you don't). This oval has some raised section around it for the viewing public, so it added some nice little undulations into the picture. The biggest is a 2m rise in 2m travel, so it's a nice little punch when you're feeling tired. Anyhow, at the end of the last one, I realised that my old nemesis shin niggle was having a nice nibble at my leg. Not at all happy. Was it the new shoes, or the sharp rises at speed, or something else? Ice & massage & stretching when I got home (not in that order though).

I decided to test out the hypothesis that it was the shoes by wearing them again on Wednesday's long run, but keep the early stages of that run near home in case of blow-ups. Sure 'nuff, after about 4k, the dragons started nibbling again, so I headed home before too much damage was done. Ice, etc again.

Thinking about it, I realised that my old shoes were all worn on the outer edge of the heel, so my new ones were pushing my feet to a new angle, almost the same as if I'd put orthotics in. The different angle fitted with the position of the strain too. TA talked to Dr Pain at her appointment and he agreed that I just needed to settle in to them.

Consequently, I wore them to work on Thursday (and got a few comments - they're fairly bright for an office :-) ) and then on to Run Club in the evening. We did a 3k TT on a bathtub course - it's a 500m length with significant little rises at each end - and I was very pleased (and surprised) to do 11:27. However, when I got home and measured it on Google Earth, it's only about 2.8km, so that's still only a 4:oo pace. However, on the bright side, it is a 4:00 pace on hills, so that's got to count for something.

Anyhow, the really bright spot of the evening was that the dragons had gone back to sleep, so it looks like I'm getting used to the new platform OK. I'll wear them at the Striders 10k on Saturday, and then drop back to the old ones for the long run on Sunday. Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye... (and best of everything to those going to the Port HIM this weekend - wish we were there).

Gnome

An exultation and a whinge

2006-10-29T21:43:00.000+11:00

Desperately trying to stay awake... Don't know how long I'll last :-)

After last week's prevarications regarding how hard or easy to take things, there was no question this week - it was full steam ahead. As I once again didn't have access to the car on Tuesday morning, water running was out, so it was back to the local oval for 4 x 1460m reps. The times were consistent enough (6:02, 6:14, 6:10, 6:10), but the rescovery breaks just got longer as time wore on (96 s, 143 s, 172s). Must watch that next time.

Wednesday's run was one of the good ones. My normal 14k loop (which has some nasty hills) was cut slightly short by an ungent pit stop, but I did the 13.5k at an average of 5:02.

Run Club on Thursday was a lactate session. Alternating between Tim's "mini 6 ft" track at an easy pace and running hard on the time trial course, we did
1x lap 6ft (1k26m) (unknown time)
1x 940m (3:38)
2x laps 6ft (6:15 & 6:19)
1x 940m (3:37)
1x lap 6ft (5:50), which included a final 470m in 1:39!
I was very pleased that I could pull out that final sprint at the end of the evening.

Earlier in the week, tiger angel had noticed a problem with her gears during a spin session, and I diagnosed a bent gear adjuster thingy (that's the technical term), so she took it back to the shop this afternoon. As expected, the adjustment was quickly done, and then the mechanic mentioned that the seat post was damaged and that it "would have to be replaced some time". It turned out that "some time" meant "before the bike could be ridden again" so it had to be done on the spot. Lesson learned? Don't have carbon fibre seat posts. One very low speed bingle (caused by some woman who hasn't mastered the art of looking before turning in the middle of a large pack), and we're down $220. [[mumble, grumble, mutter]]

Anyhow, on to happier things. I lined up for the CR 5k challenge on Saturday with Evie & Johnny Dark and a few others (except that Evie and I were chatting to Uncle Dave up the back and missed the start by about 10 seconds. Oops :-)). Would have been a pb morning big time if it wasn't for the howling sou'westerly that was in our faces for 4 of the 5 k. The splits tell the story.
4:12
4:19
4:19
4:05 <- this was the sheltered k, and our normal speed
4:11
Enormously hard work, adequately recompensed by a slap-up breakfast in Leichhardt :-) Chunderbolt did a pb for the year (I'll bet that was the only pb of the day) and JD showed that he is gunna whip his pb next month!

Finally, on Sunday morning I headed for the Star run starting at Drumoyne Rowers. Alas, in the absence of ORunner's firm hand, and with the addition of a couple of 6:20am runners, the 6:10 group just went off at an insane pace. The first 8k were 5:12, 4:44, 4:42, 4:42, 5:04, 5:02, 4:43, 4:33 (this group is supposed to be doing 5:30). At this stage, it occurred to me that doing a long run and breathing like that were not mutually compatible, and I dropped off the back to run the next 5k on my own. At the bottom of the Gladesville bridge, I caught up with some 6am runners and stuck with them for the rest of the day (29k all up), and it was the best thing that I could have done. For a start, the bloke that I chatted to for most of the rest of the run is a dual 6 footer with a 3:20 marathon to his credit and times for the 10k & half not too far from mine. He said that he'd tried to run with the 6:10 group a number of times, but that he'd never managed to stick with them, and now he always just ran at 6am.

The run from there was great. It was a really good pace, we finished the 29k in under 2:30 and we did the last 4 k at 5:10 pace, so there was still plenty of juice in the tank. Just the way a long training run should be. That's my last attempt at 6:10. Looks like I'm going to have to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier from now on :-)

Tiger angel's day was even better. She had "one hour Walk/Run" on the program, so she ran over 7k, interspersed with 1.4k of walking. That's by far the longest that she's run for a year, and she finished feeling strong. Quake in your boots, you competitors - she's a'comin back! :-) :-)

Gnome

p.s. ...and she's gunna kill me for writing that last bit...

Woohoo Weekend!

2006-10-23T08:48:00.000+10:00

Wonderful weekend in the tiger/gnome household! On Saturday, Macro and I went out to the air show at Richmond. For a person who loathes weapons of any sort, I have a very confusing love of aircraft, even when they are merely purpose built killing machines. Strange... I only took 146 photos. Here's my favourite :-)

Then on Sunday morning, tiger angel and I went our separate ways (if only briefly :-)). TA caught the train to North Sydney to join wildthing & Mr WT in the RTA 'spring cycle' event - a 50km ride from Nth Sydney to Homebush. This was TA's first time back on the roads in almost a year (and a very long year it has been...), so she's stoked that apart from a bit of a cricked neck this morning and some soreness from a bingle when a less-experienced rider decided to do a hard left turn in the middle of a pack, she came through it really well. Triple woo-hoo!!

The reason that I didn't join her in the ride was the Striders' half marathon at Lane Cove. As my near term goal is a massive pb at Central Coast, and as I haven't run a competitive half since last January, I wanted to use this one to give me a picture of where I was at. Super happy to do a one minute pb with a 1:37:47 finish. Yet more woo-hoos :-)

Then finally last night, tiger angel and I saw our lovely daughter-in-law (macro's wife) get baptised. A real fun-filled, special service. What an awesome weekend!

Gnome

p.s. for the sake of record, I ended up taking TA's advice last week and doing an in-between week - not hard, not easy. Tuesday I couldn't get to the pool, so I did a Mona on grass at a local oval. Wednesday was 10.6k at a 5:18 pace, and at Run Club we did a reducing intervals session - 2x 1380, 2x 920 and 2x 460.

Week interrupted (pt 2)

2006-10-16T23:00:00.000+10:00

...so on Friday night we settled down to a nice quiet night in, with the kids off at a weekend camp. The plan was for a tempo 10k on Saturday, and then a long run up around Bathurst while visiting my sister on Sunday, but a phone call changed all that.

The call was from our eldest (Macro) to tell us that Micro was on his way to hospital, having dived into a too-shallow pool and hit his head. This completed the trifecta for us, as both Macro and Angel have in the past been taken from camp to hospital, in each case while skylarking during night games. Hence, I guess that Micro was pretty much destined to take the same journey :-)

Anyhow, the news is fine, and although he ended up with a night in casualty for observation (while I attempted - and failed - to sleep on the concrete floor beside his bed), the only real damage will be the possible loss of a patch of hair. (Oh, and that pink line to the right of the main damage is where they glued him back together! Who needs stitches?? )

I eventually made it home at about 10:30, and with the heat (and the fact that I was exhausted), I didn't even entertain the idea of doing my 10 tempo. Yet another run down the drain. Micro did go back to camp, so tiger angel and I were free to head off up to Bathurst.

Sunday morning bright and early, I headed off towards Mt Panorama. If running up it gives you a new respect for the way the drivers throw the cars around getting up there, running down does even more so. The drop down through 'esses' is sheer lunacy. From there I just wandered around the town, ending up getting lost and running through the only hilly part of the place (Llanarth and Windradyne) - it seems that my body is drawn towards hills, no matter how much I try to resist :-). All up, it was 26k at a 6 minute average - a fair bit slower than a normal Star run, but I was pleased to be still feeling strong at the end of it all.

So, I'm now left with a bit of a conundrum. This coming week is supposed to be my one-in-four easy week, but with the interruptions of the last two weeks (weekly totals of just 39 and 32k respectively), I think that I've just had my easy week(s). Do I stick to plan and take yet another easy, or just start the next cycle now?. I'm pretty tempted towards the latter...

Gnome

p.s. There's not been much mention of TA's progress in the blog of late, probably because she continues to improve slowly but unspectacularly. She's been working on re-conditioning her body, and is carefully starting to get back into the swing of things. Hence, tonight she entered the RTA Spring Cycle (50k from Nth Sydney to Homebush), which will be her first time back on the roads for about a year (there's been plenty of wind-trainer work during the reconditioning, so it's not total madness - I know what you were thinking :-) ). Here's to much more steady and unspectacular progress!

Week interrupted (pt 1)

2006-10-16T09:15:00.000+10:00

Not exactly to plan... The water running on Tuesday was fine (5m warm up, 7 x 2min hard, 1m recovery, 5m warm down followed by 3 sets of 10 squats and lunges), but last week's lurgy was still making itself felt. On Wednesday morning, TA disappeared early to train some clients, and when my alarm went off at 5:50, I thought "I'm not feeling great. Maybe I'll cut it back to 10k" and rolled over. Later on, I readjusted to 5k, and eventually decided that I really wasn't up to running. TA arrived home about 9:30 to find me still there, and there I stayed... Her words of greeting were "you should have stayed in bed 5 days ago", and as always, she was probably right.

I felt *much* better by the end of the day, so I did the normal pushie ride and Run Club on Thursday with no apparent after effects. Run Club was Tim's 'mini-6ft', a 1.27k loop across a number of surfaces - 400m on grass, up a long concrete ramp, (walk!) down a couple of flights of stairs and then a flat bitumen loop.

I went out with Kar Soon (CR KSL) and Rob (CR Mr WT) for the first lap, having a nice chat, and then they cleared out. Splits were 6:18, 6:06, 6:07 ,6:08 & 6:11, so after the chat lap, it was all pretty even (pace 4:50). Followed with some strength work (lunges and hovers), and then we retired to the pub to celebrate Run Club's 2nd anniversary. Happy Birthday! :-) As we'd done some strength work on Thursday night, I excused myself from repeating it on Friday morning, which brings us to Friday night... (to be continued)

Of dreams and nightmares...

2006-10-08T21:41:00.000+10:00

I've just been reading reports of the Melbourne Marathon and all the heartache and accomplishments. We're a strange bunch aren't we, the way that we push ourselves to achieve in the absence of any "real" reason ('real' in the eyes of the rest of the world, that is). We all have our dreams. The nightmare part is the preparation - you may guess from this that I haven't had such a good week...

I've been fighting off a bit of a chest infection all week. The water running on Tuesday went OK (followed by 3 x 50m freestyle in my own uniquely ugly style). Because of the time wasted on the swimming, I didn't get my strength stuff done. I have to do something about that. On Tuesday night I didn't get to bed until 2:30 am, so I used the lurgy as an excuse to not do the mid-week long run on Wednesday (and slept in instead).

Run Club on Thursday was a hills session - 5 laps of Tim's hill loop. I kept it pretty even until the last one - 4:37, 4:37, 4:34, 4:37, 4:47. Then we did a hills ladder - 4 cones up the hill, run from the bottom to the first 'rung' and back, then to the second and back, etc, up to the top, then working back down the ladder. After recovery, we did it again, but only working up. It all got a bit testosterone-laden on the last run, ending in an all-out sprint with yours truly getting mown down by the fast blokes. Ah well, I never was too stong on the testosterone front! :-) We finished up with 2 more laps of the hill loop, which after the excesses on the ladder were a little slower in 4:49 and 4:43.

Once again, I used the lurgy excuse to avoid my strength exercises on Friday, but I was (as always) looking forward to the striders 10k on Saturday down at Homebush. I have dificulties with the Homebush course, but I really don't know why. Someone suggested that it is because you can't mentally break it up the same as other courses and I think that has some resonance, but at the same time I can't logically see why that would be so. Anyhow, maybe I'm just preparing excuses.

I warmed up with CRs Evie and Chunderbolt, and then Evie and I wandered up to the 40-45 minute zone in the starting pack. Our aim was to try for a 42:xx (the lower the better), but we spent a good time waiting for the start practicing our excuses. As a race, it was a good 'learning opportunity' :-). We started a bit too enthusiastically, and died in the second half (4:17, 4:13, 4:08, 4:17, 4:19, 4:19, 4:25, 4:22, 4:32, 4:09). Evie dropped me at the 7k mark and gradually got about 10 seconds ahead. Thankfully, unlike the CR5k last week, I was able to find some reserve in the last k and pulled back her lead to only 2 seconds. She finished in 42:59 (a new pb for her) and I in 43:01 which is about 20 seconds over pb. I don't mind running times like that. You can't have a pb every time, and if I can be running in the same time zone as my pb, I figure that it's a pretty good run.

Finally, as if to wrap up a lurgy-ridden week, I tossed and turned all last night debating whether it was a good idea to run 25k with a chest infection or not. At 4:30 am I finally decided that it would be really dumb and that I should stay in bed, and at 5:10 I changed my mind yet again and got up. As it was, the run was really hard work and I'm still debating the intelligence of doing it. I know that they say 'that which doesn't kill you, etc', but at the moment I'm feeling like it killed me... Tomorrow's a rest day, and I'm sooooo looking forward to that... (cough, cough, splutter).

Gnome

Calf Stretch Ramp

2006-10-08T18:43:00.000+10:00

TA & I have had a few people ask for details on the Calf Stretch ramp that I made (on our Physio's advice). It's really simple to make and well worth the effort. It is so easy to use - these days I do my calf & soleus stretches while I'm re-hydrating and re-fueling after a run. Nice time saver when I'm running late for work... :-)

Not much to it, is there?

Rear view, which gives a bit of a picture of how it is constructed. The basic dimensions are;

wide enough to put two feet on simultaneously
about as long as your shoe
angle 30 degrees

In my case, that translated into the top surface being 220 x 295mm, and the vertical triangular pieces being 185 x 105 x 205 (all dimensions are pretty rough). The material was some 19mm MDF that I had lying around, but anything strong enough to take your weight would do fine (chip board or MDF or pine or even Western Red Cedar if you're so inclined... :-)).

The triangular pieces are glued and screwed to the main foot plate, and then I stapled and glued a carpet scrap that I had to make it nicer on bare feet. As it is, I never use it with bare feet because your foot slides down it, so the carpet is probably a waste of effort.

Here's an upside down view, just in case it wasn't already obvious.

Stretch the upper calf by standing with one foot on the slope, and the other either beside or in front of the board, depending on how flexible the calf is. Keep the leg straight. You'll feel the stretch in the upper calf just below the knee. (Much thanks to tiger angel for standing in as the leg model).

To stretch the soleus, put the non-stretched food back a bit, and bend your knee. You'll feel the stretch in the lower calf.

Hope that's helpful. I'd never be without it now. If I don't have my ramp available, I try to find a gutter or some other slight rise to achieve the same end.

Gnome

A good(ish) weekend

2006-10-02T22:17:00.000+10:00

I couldn't get a car on Tuesday morning to get to the pool, so I swapped with Wednesday and did my mid week (14k) run. Ran at 5:15 pace, and it felt good the whole way.

I think that I'm starting to get the hang of the water running. I did another Mona fartlek on Wednesday, and for the first time I really felt pushed at the end of it. I upped the cadence a bit, but I also extended the leg stroke as well. Let's see if I can keep it going tomorrow.

Thursday night at Run Club was supposed to be 5x 800 (theoretically Yasso 800s, but it was really about 770m). I was ridiculously even for the first 4 - 2:56, 2:56, 2:56, 2:54, then on the last one I went all out and tried to keep with Rob (Mr WT). The idea was to see whether I was limiting myself in the pace I was running, and to see whether I'd do things differently at a higher pace (but being careful to not force myself, ie being careful to keep the stride reasonably relaxed). Anyhow, I couldn't keep with Rob in the last 1/3, but I pulled out a 2:32 which I was very happy with. No way that I could have done 5 reps at that pace though!

The CR5k on Saturday was great - perfect morning, lots of people, and after Thursday night I figured that I might be able to do a decent run. Evie was there, and we debated (very briefly) running off 20 minutes (our dream goal), but quickly decided to stay with 21 for the moment. We headed off full of hope at 3:58 and 4:05 for the first 2k, but couldn't hold it and did 4:08, 4:08 & 4:07 to bring it home at 20:26 (7 seconds behind pb). I was really happy with the time, as it's a while since I've been anywhere near there, but I was surprised at how dead-legged I felt towards the end. I didn't have any kick at all in the last k, and I don't remember ever having a run like that.

If I felt that I needed a bit more endurance on Saturday, I was absolutely certain of it on Sunday. The Strider's Star was my local, so it would have pretty poor form to miss it. Tim (Redback), JD, Tesso and I ended up doing about 25k together. It may not have been the toughest course in the world, but it sure felt like it on the day! By half way around, I was questioning whether a pb at Central Coast was even a remote possibility, but provided my body holds together and my training stays consistent, all that endurance will come back (and of course, CC is only a stepping stone...)

Gnome

p.s. wasn't it a grand game on Saturday? OK, the result was sad, but I reckon all the players in both teams can be immensely proud of the series of games that they've fought out over the last 2 years. Bring on 2007! :-)

Whispering Gnome

2006-09-23T12:21:00.000+10:00

I'll apologise, but if you can't hear me properly it's because I can't talk. I left my voice at Telstra Stadium last night. 20 people on the Cahill was a pretty good cheer squad - 60,000 at the stadium was even better :-) Three Peliminary Finals in four years, two Grand Finals in two years. Not bad for a bunch of ugly ducklings :-) :-)

Anyhow, back to running. This week was the first of my soon-to-be-regular easy ones. As you'll see, I haven't got the discipline perfect yet. On Tuesday, I figured that water running wouldn't contribute to any damage, so there was clearly no need to reduce it. 45 minutes, comprising a 10 min warm up, 10 min solid pace, 4 x 2 min on / 2 min off, and 5 min cool down. I generally try to take the opportunity whilst I'm on the water to have a go at that swimming caper, and I generally die before 100m, regardless of how slowly I turn the arms over. I can run for hours, but my lungs are busting within 25m in a pool (and yes, I do remember to breath! :-) ). A friend suggested that I should use a pool bouy and just concentrate on the stroke. It had two odd effects -
a) I felt like my legs were just about dragging along the bottom of the pool. The bouy didn't seem to do much, and
b) I easily did 4 x 25 m without any breathing problems. Maybe I just kick too hard normally??

On Wednesday I managed to be a good boy and limit my run to 45 minutes (half in the bush where the Garmin won't work, so I worked on time rather than distance). On Thursday I couldn't halve my ride to work, so it stayed full length, but it was at Run Club that I let things get away from me.

We did a "rolling bay", where we run the bay in formation, with the last person in the line sprinting to the front ad infinitum. The first 3k were at 6 min pace, but then we were split into a couple of groups, with our group to cover the remainder at 4:20 pace. After 2k, I stopped to walk for 30 seconds with one bloke who had fallen off the back, and then set off to catch up to the rest, half of whom were heading up the Dog Park loop. I should have headed straight home, but instead I followed them up the loop at 4 min pace to catch up. Another 2k later, it dawned on me that I was supposed to be in a light week, and here I was doing things longer and faster than normal! Idiot. I pulled back and did the final 2k at 5 min pace, but 9k, with 6 of them averaging around 4:30, was not what the doctor ordered.

I was very careful this morning, only doing the old 5.5k loop at 4:55, and tomorrow I'll just do 10k. Next time I'll get it all right :-)

Gnome