the proverbial broken record

Let's get one, fairly simple thing straight before we go any further with this running blog thing.

I'm dumb.

I'm not unintelligent, at least I don't think I am. But as a runner, as someone who should know better and chooses not to - I'm a bonafide, grade A moron.

I know I have sore achilles, and I know this because my tag cloud to the right has the word 'achilles' in a font size three times bigger than any other. I also know it because my calves are quite sore two days after a long run, and because when I tried to do a speed session this morning, I struggled and had to cut it short early. I know because every running stride on my right hand side causes me to realise that my achilles is pulling a little.

At least I cut my run this morning short and didn't run through the pain. Well, I mean, I did run through the pain for 1km, but at least I stopped after that. Well, I mean, I ran a little on the way home, but that's not really running now, is it?

There is something strange about the human condition that allows/encourages us to ignore things that we know are simply bad for us. Like eating a cheeseburger. I run, even when I know I shouldn't - I just do it anyway. And what's possibly worse is that i know its bad for me. And yet, persistence is a virtue apparently. Part of it is not allowing weakness to creep in. You know the voice. "If you don't run today, all of your work from before will be undone" - if you can imagine the voice in a cheesy 50's sitcom ghost voice, all the better for you.

I will go and see a sports doctor. I will at least try to convince myself that running 11km on Wednesday if I am not 100% is a bad idea.

Then again, I'll probably just run anyway.

technical difficulties

Today was one of those days that I planned to go one way, and ended up going another. Not that uncommon I suppose, but when you are planning to go for a jog, you don't really expect it to deviate *too* far from plan. Right?


The run itself was not too bad, not great, but fairly average. Truth is, I can't really say whether it was a good run or not, owing to issues that I had with my iPhone app - RunKeeper. I think that I ran around the 20km mark, though I'll never really know for sure I suppose. And it doesn't really matter either.


My first issue came when E called from New York to tell me that she had landed (this wasn't an issue mind, I just want to make that clear). I now know that if your phone rings while you are running, the application suspends its GPS and ceases timing. I had managed to run about 1km in the time that I was speaking to E, so that was a fair chunk missing right there.


When I re-started the activity on the application, it then decided not to play music for me any more, and my headphones simultaneously conked out, so I could barely hear the application prompting me for distances and paces. Which meant that I was basically running with my phone for no reason at this stage.


Periodically I would take the phone from my arm to check distances in order to ensure that I ran around the 21.1km that I had intended to run, and that worked to a degree. At around the 17km mark however (a time at which I was tracking ahead of schedule to run a PB for the Half Marathon distance), I must have stopped the application, because it ceased timing again. 


So I don't have an accurate timing or distance measure for this morning, which made me kind of cranky; but it was user error I suppose. My achilles are feeling a bit sore now that I've had the chance to have a bath, stretch and Dencorub up a bit. My hips were quite sore as I was running, which is just another thing to keep an eye on. 


Strength session tomorrow, but beers in the meantime at the folks place.






Extra note: If to prove my point; I have a somewhat sore throat from screaming at my computer, owing to the difficulty in posting the map above. Technology hates me today. I'm not going anywhere near the washing machine. Sounds like a good excuse to me.

country town running

So, the problem with running in a country town is that, well, there's not much of it. I ran up and down the main strip of a town in New South Wales called Cooma this morning, and still had a few kilometres to make up, so I had to zig and zag through side streets in order to make up the distance. It was tricky, I gotta say.

Not a bad run, my achilles is still a bit sore, but not really too bad. I've reached a stage where I think I'll have to go and see a sports physio or something. 10km this morning though, and I really wanted to run it slow in order to preserve my energy for my first back-to-back 6km/20km coming up this weekend. I had also read on Cool Runnings, a spectacular Australian running messageboard about the benefits of running below goal pace. So I ran it at about 1:00/km slower than my goal pace, which felt comfortable pretty much all of the way, except when I encountered a few hills that made life a bit tricky.

All in all, a pretty comfortable run, though I really need to get this achilles sorted, because I am starting to sound like a broken record.

speed, speed, cepat!

First speed session this morning of the program, and I'm feeling pretty good. It took a bit to get going this morning (tying up your shoe laces with your eyes half open - always comedy gold), but once I did I felt pretty good. Pain was relocating all over my body though, moving from my chest (felt like woodpeckers were going to work on my breastplate) to my calves, to (surprise, surprise) my achilles, and even a recurrance of my old compartment syndrome symptoms. Fun and games.

I did four sets of 1500m at 80% intensity with a 500m jog in between this morning, and felt good to know at the end that I had run that intensity at above my 10km pace. I had meant to run at around the 5:10/km pace, and ended up running what looks like on average to be around low 4:50/km pace - a quicker pace than I have clocked through any of my running so far.

I was also silly enough (as you can see below) to include a slight inclining hill into my intervals, which made it tough finishing - but rewarding.

So, a day of stretching and resting, then another day off tomorrow, before my medium run 10km on Thursday. I'm travelling with work tomorrow, so I'll get to go-a-running in new surroundings on Thursday. Very exciting.

Power!

First day of the training schedule today, and feeling pretty good early on. I did some 'strength' training this morning in the lounge room of our unit; mainly body weight exercises like planks, squats and push ups. It was good, but my technique for calf raises needs some serious work.

My achilles was feeling fine until yesterday afternoon when I was sprinting down pit straight at the end of the Australian Grand Prix; I felt it grab a bit. I am still optimistic that it will be fine for tomorrow's speed session, but if it isn't, then the rest and rehab will have to continue for a little while longer.

Also discovered that adding milk to my post run protein shakes tastes much, much better than water. Plus, milk makes it look less like a glass of poo-water.

Anyway, until tomorrow when I am back on the trail...

Note: I finally got around to changing the title from 'From Nobby Hill to Nea Bakri', to 'From Prestons to Pallini' - bringing it in line with the change of marathon schedule. New image to follow when I get around to it.

the eternal wait

Short post today, because no running to speak of. Today was day o' other sports, as I watched my insipid Melbourne Demons get flogged against Hawthorn (Scully and Trengove highlights), and then watched Red Bull Racing go 1-2 on the grid in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.


I'm planning at the moment to have a 20 minute jog tomorrow in order to check the status of my achilles, just to ensure I don't really hurt myself. It feels ok, but pulls a little bit when I jog in non-running shoes.


Here's hoping.


I'm really enthused with running right now, particularly as I gazed up at the 1956 Olympic honour roll at the MCG today, and found myself staring at the Marathon winner, a French guy who I forget the name of.


A man can dream.

Break.

It has been a hectic past couple of days in the brain of mine; so much so that I even managed to forgo running and blogging for a whole 48 hours. Things have changed yet again, as I have withdrawn from the running coach thing - it is just not the right time for it unfortunately.

I figure that it will just make the end achievement all the better; done by myself with no help. I know I can do it, now I just need to go out and do it.

Which is difficult right now, and has been for the past couple of days as I have limped as I go. My achilles has taken a couple of days to settle down, and I want to give it a couple more before I hit the road again. I am going to devise a schedule to run to, and aim to be fit and fighting in time for the M7.

Here's hoping.

The times, they are er, becoming quite different.

I love that Mayor Quimby quote.


So, my running world has indeed been flipped upside down somewhat in the past 24-48 hours. I've changed tack and decided to *not* do the 2010 Gold Coast Airport Marathon, owing to financial reasons. Instead, I will be having a crack at the 2010 Westlink M7 Cities Marathon in Sydney. This, in the least, means I need to find another two places in both Sydney and Greece which begin with the same letter in order to continue the positively delightful alliteration. 


I've also gone all out, and joined a running group. I'll be working with the team at Sporting Spirit in order to not only make my goal distance, but do it in less than 4 hours. I've got two sessions a week (I hope) - a speed session in the city (at a relatively famous running track known as 'The Tan') on Tuesdays with a group, and then long runs on Sundays with another group, changing locations from week-to-week. It's very exciting, they're writing me up a training program with strength work, and intervals - here's hoping.


I'm also aiming to run the Geelong Half Marathon on the 11th April in order to tune up for M7. Which, again, costs money, so its all making me very poor.


And to top it all of, my achilles is still quite sore from Sunday's run, so here's hoping two days of rest will enable it to stand up to an easy run tomorrow morning. Here's hoping.


The times, they are becoming quite different!

*twwwwwang*

Back at the work desk for another week, plugging away, attempting to not spend money as much as possible. *sigh* This is what I have become.

Do you want the good news or the news that is not terrible, but hardly good? Good news? Ok - my calves and hamstrings feel great! The three sets of stretches that I did yesterday afternoon really did the trick, so it's nice to know that one more issue is (somewhat) out of the way. The other news is that my right achilles tendon is pretty sore, and the rear side of both of my groins are a bit tender. I swear to god; if it isn't one thing it is another!

I tried some Musashi recovery energy drink yesterday which was lemon flavoured (and encouraged an old lady at our local shopping centre to give me a long winded speech on how much she prefers lemon flavoured soft drink to coke - joy.), and that didn't seem to have much effect. Nothing that a good hearty dinner and a troubled sleep couldn't fix, as far as I'm concerned.

Also a little disappointed that despite a number of handy runs coming up (Sri Chamoy Williamstown, Great Ocean Road Half Marathon, Geelong Half Marathon) in the next month, I'm not going to be able to run them owing to lack of funds. I can achieve the same goal by running the streets of Prahran, but it would just be nice to run a competitive run, since I haven't run one since late 2008, and I'm itching to get back into it.

Anyway, wasted enough work time now - back to it.