Splish Splash

Water Running
Today’s session
5 minute warm up
2 sets of 5 by 90 seconds hard with 30 second easy and 2 minute easy between sets
5 minute cool down

And those 90 seconds hard where HARD, for motivation I imagined that I was running 400s and I was breathing pretty hard and getting the pulse going quite nicely. I will start wearing the HRM, I just need to pick up a new battery.

When I got home I quickly got dinner going (see below) and then got stuck into more core exercises, sorry for non-pilates people if these don’t make sense.

4 sets of The Plank off the fitball (30 seconds each time)

Single leg bridge off fitball

Knee raises

Curl up with running action legs

Oblique Plank (3 each side, 20 seconds each)

I would normally do some single leg squats but probably not a good idea with the Stressies.

To supplement the evening water running I am also going to do 30 minutes on the bike in the morning. But that will start tomorrow because I was stuffed this morning after my weekend.

Stress Fracture 101 - what causes them?
Shamelessly lifted from Tim Noakes Lore of Running and heavily summarised.

Female Sex- oh dear, that should make for some disappointed search engine results
Women are are up to 12 times more likely to suffer from Stress Fractures

Menstrual Abnormalities or a low Calcium Diet
Women who have lost their periods or have them irregularly have lower levels of estrogen which can contribute to low bone density as will a low calcium diet.

Shoes
Running in the wrong shoes for your foot type or shoes that are too old, or excessive running in spikes

Training Errors
Too much too soon. Either beginners or experienced runners increasing mileage too quickly or experienced runners doing too much speedwork or too much running on hard surfaces.

Genetics
High Arched feet do not absorb shock effectively
Low Arches feet which over pronate
Leg length discrepancy

Race
African runners are less susceptible to Stress Fractures than Caucasians.

Although I haven’t had this conversation with my doctor yet I think mine is a combination of training error, diet and genetics (the curse of the high arches again).

Training Error - jumped up the mileage too dramatically, I should have held at 70, 75 and 80Km for a few weeks each time, instead of increasing the very next week. I did not give my body enough time to adapt to the load. Tomorrow I will expand on this with an interesting little piece about osteoclonal excavation.

I am a woman - no revelation there, but Aunt Flo is always spot on time, so no issues there.

Diet - Bingo!! Had a good think about this today, and guess what, very little calcium in my diet. As an estimate I am only getting between 50% and 75% each day, as a result of trying to keep the weight down dairy has been sacrificed. I started addressing this today with smarter snacking and hopefully will be able to keep it up.

Genetics - I have pretty high arches so should probably look at replacing the insoles in my shoes with an absorbent Sofsole insole, I used to do this so need to get back into the habit.

Dinner
I got a lovely dinner cooking tonight while I was doing my core work.

Broccoli Soup
1 brown onion
A couple of cloves of crushed garlic
A large Broccoli “tree” (I dunno, what else would you call it?)
2 large potatoes
1.5 litres of Veggie Stock
Cracked Pepper
Chilli Flakes

Chop onion roughly and soften in olive oil with garlic. Throw in chopped potato and broccoli and then add veg stock along with chilli flakes to taste. Simmer for about 30 minutes and blend the hell out of it, if it is too thick add some low fat milk.

Serve with plenty of cracked pepper.

I had this tonight and it turned out lovely.

And Broccoli is a great source of Calcium too

Slow locals, suicidal birds, a wedding and a whole lotta driving

My cousins wedding was this weekend, in Bright!

I am absolutely wrecked now and have driven about 700Kms since setting out yesterday morning at 7:30. My first order of the day was to collect my brother from the Airport as he was flying in from the Gold Coast. I pulled to the side of the road just before the turn off and in a stroke of brilliant timing about 30 seconds later baby brother called to say he had disembarked. I shot around to arrivals, grabbed him from the bus stop and we hit the open road.

I am not a very good traveller due to my tendency to get bored very quickly, you know it is going to be a long trip when the driver starts chanting “are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?”, and yes, I was the driver

Got to Bright at about mid day and after some mucking around found mum, little sister and her fiance. Apparently in a coffee shop opposite a bakery, do you know how many bakeries there are in Bright!? A mad dash for the 2 bedroom unit we were staying in as 5 people tried to get ready in under an hour. We get to the ceremony just before 2pm and to my stunned surprise discover that my cousin, in her infinite wisdom had decided that an outdoor wedding, IN BRIGHT, AT THE END OF AUTUMN was a GOOD idea Ok, not quite outdoor, but in a very drafty gazebo type affair, so we sat there, knees a knockin’ and teeth a chatterin’ hoping like hell that the bride would suspend with the traditional late arrival. It wasn’t to be and the ceremony did not get underway until 2:45pm, 45 minutes late, aghhhhhhh.

Anyway, a weddings a wedding, it was all very nice, mum and aunty bawled, champagne was consumed, rose petals thrown and bridesmaids dresses bitched about. The reception was at Brown Brothers and was a highlight as the food was the best I had ever had at a Wedding.

However the venue had a stone floor, I was wearing very high heels for the first time in ages (and a rather fabulous dress I might add, though in black) and the legs were definitely not up for boogying the night away. As a result I did spend most of the time on my butt after a token dance with my brother and brother-in-law to be. A rather large contingent of very sweet boys and assorted male relatives kept trying to get me to dance, while I repeatedly said that rather than being a sad little spinster type character that needed looking after that in fact I was very happy sitting down and wasn’t able to dance because I was looking after my poor battered legs. Never mind that fact that even without Stress Fractures I am an appalling dancer anyway. One guy, whom I didn’t know, must have been on the grooms side, said that it was the worst excuse he had ever heard, sorry mate, lame as it may have sounded, it was still true.

After renacting my childhood and sharing a room with my brother (but I got the top bunk after my brother fell asleep passed out, on the bottom bunk) I was up early(ish), grabbed a rather good take away coffee and hit the road on my lonesome to head home. Brother, Sis and her finance were on the same flight home so I didn’t have to go via the airport.

I had never done such a long journey alone and until I hit the traffic lights in Lilydale it was a pretty pleasant trip. Some pretty funny road signs in the county though, my two faves, “Mind Slow Local Vehicles” (as opposed to Mind Slow Locals) and “Trees Close to Road”. As far as I am aware Trees are not in the habit of jumping randomly into on coming traffic, but maybe country trees are, who knows, luckily none of them bothered me. There were plenty of suicidal birds though, Galahas in particular seemed especially thrill seeking.

Bright was beautiful though, as always. And here it is, I had my first little cry driving home, it was a cool drizzly morning, the mountains looked stunning, I was tired and emotional and was thinking how absolutely perfect it would have been to head out for a long run and have a good explore before driving home Hopefully one day I will be able to get back and maybe spend some time at Falls Creek, that would be perfect.

Rambled on enough now, I have so much to get done now.

Monday sees the start of my intensive “Keep Em fit while injured” plan, I have some stuff planned for this blog to document my come back, starting tomorrow, stay tuned……….

Google was right

Confirmed - Tibial Stress Fractures

You read correct, plural, a lovely matching pair, one for each leg.

Doesn’t my body know I detest even numbers?

Found this on the net today, it will be my life for the next 9 weeks.

Though I have been ordered back to the doc in 3 weeks time for assessment, so am hoping to be doing some gentle running again within 4 weeks, considering I have already had 10 days off and a light week prior to that.

At this stage we are not sure what caused this, this will be looked at and dealt with when I am better.

Here’s hoping this thing does not become the monkey on my back and I don’t become one of those people that keep getting them

The hand ringing is behind me, yes I am pissed off that I lost a summer and am now likely to lose most of the winter but shit happens and I have to move on and concentrate on rehab now.

According to Tim Noakes, research has shown that you can maintain your VO2 max for up to 6 weeks with pool work, so I intend to bloody well work as hard as I can. This will also give me time to work on my core as well, maybe in 6 weeks time I’ll have a nice 6 pack as well

For the record, my bottom lip wobbled, I got a lump in my throat, but I didn’t cry

So for the time being this will become the “rehab” blog, not the running blog, I hope I can keep it positive and interesting.

I am hoping I can get ahold of my bone scan so I can post the picture of my poor shins.

Later that day….
Straight to the pool after work, I started with Week 1, Friday of the Pfitzinger water running program. Today’s set called for

5 minutes warm up (good for getting the rhythm and getting to form right)
1 minute on 1 minute off
2 minutes on 1 minute off
3 minutes on 1 minute off
4 minutes on 1 minute off
3 minutes on 1 minute off
2 minutes on 1 minute off
1 minute on
5 minutes off

When I had PF I did a bit of pool running but pretty much just arsed around and didn’t take it very seriously. Now I have a nice structured program (I am a Capricorn, I crave order ) it is actually easier to approach and I got a pretty good work out today. Taking my pulse between sets I was able to get it to around 150, I’ll replace the battery in my chest strap and wear the HRM in future.

I have to go to Bright for the weekend for my cousins wedding (which is why I won’t be posting, I am not sulking I promise) so won’t be able to get to the pool tomorrow, Sunday calls for XT so will jump on the exercise bike.

Now to answer Andrew’s questions -
Swimming, Moi?? ‘fraid not, I tried last week and managed half a lap of freestyle before I started to sink so I will have to stick to the pool running.

Bike, can only stick to the exercise bike, for once a recumbent is not so bad because it is not load bearing. If I ride outside I am not allowed hills or out of saddle riding, so pretty much no point really.

The upshot, no chance I will go over to the Tri side.

As for how a stressy feels? Well, I am the last person to answer that because I just didn’t see it coming. I didn’t experience any pain in my shins until last week AFTER I stopped running, go figure hey. I was experiencing discomfort first in my right calf and then in my left. It was about 20cm above the ankle on the inside (medial, I believe). It just felt like tight muscles and would go away after I warmed up into the run, I wasn’t feeling any pain after about the first 5 minutes . Because I am used to having tight calf muscles, and a massage made me feel better I just didn’t think anything of it. I had a massage 3 weeks ago and my MT said my shins felt normal (I have been seeing her for a year, she knows what my shins feel like ) but could feel the difference last night. Also there was no localised sore spot and I could hop and do single leg squats without pain as well. The moral of the story really, we are all different and will experience the same ailment differently.

So I had shin splints and they progressed to the stress fractures, now I know what it feels like I won’t let it happen again.

Finally, thanks so much for all the support and good wishes. 2 days ago I was of a mind to just not blog until I was better, but in a clearer light I will certainly stay around. Anyway, If I can’t be a good example at least I can serve as a warning.

This is getting spooky

I don’t believe in horoscopes, but for the second time in just over a week I am getting a telling off -

Capricorn
If you’re unhappy about something you’ll voice your displeasure today and that’s OK - as long as you know this is one of those times when charm and wit get a better response than grizzling.

I guess I have been told.

Sorry about yesterday.

And the only person I have ever heard used the word “grizzle” is my mother.

Do you think she is writing the horoscope for The Age, because that is exactly the sort of thing she would have said to me.

Click, click, click, click

Is what you would hear if you held a geiger counter near me today, goodness knows what might happen, I have been shot full of radioactive tracers and bombarded with gamma rays.

I arrived at Mercy Radiology this morning and checked in, then was directed to Nuclear Medicine and with great trepidation entered a room with that alarming nuclear warning sign on the door.

I was shot full of Radioactive Tracers, had the initial scan and was sent on my way.

3 hours later I was back for the second scan, 3 images from different angles and a nice little cat nap

I tried desperately not to look at the image forming on the screen and probably should have told the Radiologist to turn it away. Anyway, obviously I am not qualified to read these things, but I didn’t like what I saw having done some research on the net.

Well, no panicking until I have seen the doc again sometime in the next couple of days.

I have decided that instead of an Elliptical I will hire a spin bike if I have to be off for more than 2 weeks. I used to do heaps of Spin before I started running and next to running it is the best thing to get your heart rate up, it will also take up less room. Then there is still the pool running. I had a good workout with Jo in the pool today, it is amazing how the 45 minutes passed so much more quickly with someone to talk to.

Now here’s the thing. I guess I assumed that if you had shin splints or worse still a stress fracture that you would feel the pain in your shins, but before I stopped running I had no pain in my shins. The pain I was feeling was in my calves, I sincerely thought I had a soft tissue problem. If the pain was in my shins I would have stopped a week earlier, also since I got onto the Voltaren there has been no pain at all, it went away over night.

I think I am slipping back to the Depression/Anger phase again today. Next to actually losing a leg getting a SF was just about my worst nightmare. I am pissed off at my body which for the last 33 years has been strong as an Ox, and now has decided to fail me. I am pissed off after all the work I did to get back after the PF that I am back at square one again right at the start of the winter season. So much for all the caution and careful planning, that seems to have gotten me no where other than injured.

How the hell did this happen to me?

Sorry, this post went down hill real fast.

I am going to blog off and wallow in self pity for a couple of days

The card says so

I dedicated an hour to exercise when I got home from work today, starting just as the 5pm news on Channel 10 began.

45 minutes worth of rolling hills on the exercise bike, keeping at about 29/30 KPH. Then about 15 minutes worth of Pilates, does not sound like much but I haven’t done it for a while and I am pretty sure what I did today will make it hard to laugh tomorrow, especially The Plank off the Fitball.

I am booked in for my Bone Scan tomorrow morning, at 10am I get injected full of radioactive stuff then off to work and back again about 4 hours later for the scan. I am hoping the radioactivity will give me some sort of comic book style super powers, I’ll have to work on my Superhero name, not to mention the costume

It seems that unlike some people Anti-Inflams seem to be agreeing with me because I was absolutely flying this morning, so much so that my boss asked me if I was OK because I was way too chirpy for a Monday morning. Or maybe it is just because there was barely any discomfort in my legs over the last 2 days and I have the spring back in my step for the first time in over a week. I was even proudly showing off my little bruises from the Dry Needling. So here’s hoping the optimism prevails, despite the results of the Bone Scan. I am determined to take the results on the chin no matter what they are and I promise I will try really hard not to cry if it is bad news.

Apparently there are 4 stages we go through when injured -
Denial (spent too long at this stage)
Anger (very, shouted alot and scared the cats last weekend and had a little cry)
Depression (when I realised I had to miss the Sandown 10Km, but so be it and also feeling like I have let the team down)
Acceptance (am there now)

This time last week I was going through all 4 in half hour blocks about 15 times a day, very exhausting.

I am pretty confident I am now at Acceptance and am now doing whatever it takes to get back .

Follows is a bit more info on Dry Needling and despite the pain at the time I’d have it again in a second considering the result-

Dry Needling is used for the treatment of muscle pain and dysfunction. The approach is based on Western anatomical and neurophysiological principles and is not to be confused with Chinese Acupuncture. Dry Needling involves introducing fine, sterile acupuncture needles into “trigger points” of muscles. A Trigger point is defined as a hyperirritable spot within a muscle. Trigger points are painful on compression and can give rise to characteristic referred pain, referred tenderness, motor dysfunction and “autonomic” responses such as temperature and skin changes over the site of pathology. Trigger points are commonly seen in both acute and chronic pain conditions. Dry Needling alleviates the symptoms of trigger points and is commonly used for the treatment of:

- wry neck
- jaw pain
- headaches and migraines
- muscular tightness
- stress
- chronic pain syndrome
- sporting injuries
- compartment tightness and shin splints
- hamstring and lower back problems
Dry Needling uses the same needles as Acupuncture and 71% of trigger points actually coincide with acupoints.

Yesterday I got my Race numbers and my AV insurance card. My card had my club name, my name and underneath my name one word - Athlete Love it, no one can take that away from me, the card says so

Tomorrow I am off to the pool for some deep water running and happy happy joy, I have a water running buddy, yippee!!!!

Mmmmm, now dinner awaits, home made Nasi Goreng, I have some left over brown rice so I am going to try that for a change.

Gladiators
Bit of carry on today about the melee at the Carlton/Collingwood game on the weekend, “it’s not good for families” etc etc, Oil ‘em up and send ‘em in I say, the game is becoming so sanitised. Now if only they could agree to let them play topless

Need mini goals

The AV 15Km was on today at Latrobe University, by all accounts a pretty challenging course with 3 5Km loops to run. In spite of that I still felt a pang of jealousy when I heard the gun go off.

I think one of the best ways to keep the spirits up when you have a lay off is to try to keep involved. I did this when I had the PF last year and although you get that “I wanna run too” feeling, at least staying involved is better than sitting at home sulking. To that end I was up when the birdies were still sleeping at 530am, had some breakfast, took my lovely (and very effective) anti Inflam tablet and off to get to Latrobe by 630.

Desperately hoping to drive by a 24 Hour McDonalds on the way so I could grab a coffee (percolated is better than nothing), but no luck. After a few wrong turns I made it just as the boys were unpacking the Van. I got quite a workout over the next couple of hours walking around setting up bollards (the bases are damn heavy) and generally helping set up. Very happy to note no issues from my leg at all, it had been giving me some trouble in the mornings and there was barely a twinge today, that Voltaren is top stuff.

A pretty decent flat white from the mobile coffee van perked me up, then it was time to don the rather fetching, and very large fluro orange vest and off to find my marshall check point, stopping to say hello to a few faces along the way. My job was pretty much to keep the runners to the left and to stop cars driving on the course. By in large most motorists were pretty cool, but one guy gave me the shits, I dealt with him as diplomatically as I could.

You know what the hardest part is? And I had this trouble last time, it is the incidental running. All day I had to stop myself from breaking into a trot to get from point A to point B, normally I don’t even walk slowly so by the end of the event I was throughly sick of walking every where.

Goals
So how am I going to cope with the next 2 weeks? (note: being positive, not looking further than that at the moment, I WILL not have a stressie)

I have decided that I need to set some mini-goals to keep my mind focussed. So I will be using the extra time to re-discover my pilates. The fitball is pumped up, I have purchased some big stretchy exercise bands and flicked through my Pilates book to remember the moves.

I am also determined to not gain any weight, so chocs, alcohol and the like are all off the agenda *sigh*

runejanerun has offered to join me for some water running, I will definitely take you up on that mate, the more chatter the better, it will make the time pass more quickly.

Try not to hate the exercise bike too much. If I am told I need to take more than 2 weeks off I will hire an Eliptical trainer, $80 for 1 month already checked. But I will cross that bridge after my bone scan (it will be clear, it will be clear, it will be clear )

So at the very least I will emerge with the beginnings of a 6 pack and a stronger back

Then I have to start thinking about making some changes to my training and how I come back. But the Doc is going to help me with that, as will the Coach.

Other Stuff
This is for you KB, how much protein does a runner need to take in every day?

For endurance training -
1.2 to 1.6gms per Kg of body weight. Aiming for the higher end for prolonged strenuous training.

I was reading in Noakes Law of Running the other day a piece on peaking, about how runners bodies tell them when they are sharpening correctly -

During the speed training sessions, the body no longer needs to be forced through the session. Rather the body “surges forward of it’s own will” and “thirsts to accelerate”

In the hour following training, the runner feels supreme vigor, quite unlike the normal post exercise feelings of mild fatigue

Everyday physical activities, such as climbing stairs, become easier

The runner becomes increasingly sensitive to everyday situations and is mildly irritable as the body is “prepared for action and is ready for the fight”

I was feeling all these things in the past couple of week, I was excited and buzzing with positive energy

Part of me wonders if I will ever be able to cope with the level of training I want to be able to do. I suppose I am despairing somewhat and really just need to be patient, get better and manage my recovery sensibly, I have years ahead of me to do what I want to do.

Plenty of time for recovery ramblings in the coming weeks.

PS - quick rant
I know you all love a rant!

Waiting in line for my coffee this morning a man tapped me on my shoulder (I was wearing my vest and looking all official) and said “You know who’s running this thing?”, for a brief moment I thought “Der, Runners!”, then realised he meant “Excuse me young lady, would you mind informing me who is in charge here today?”

I asked him if I could help, he went on to carry on somewhat about the toilets being “way up there” and there was only one stall open, or some such and that his daughter had to wait in line. I couldn’t say myself because I didn’t need to use them. I felt like being a smart arse and saying “Oh, didn’t see you out here at 630 this morning setting up, and pretty sure I won’t see you out on the course marshaling when the last runners come though either”

News Flash idiot, these things don’t just happen and if it wasn’t for the work of alot of people giving up their time (happily in my case I might had) there wouldn’t be an event for his precious little daughter to run in.

Honestly, some people need to be slapped.

What happened to the Smart Runner?

And when was she replaced with the fucking stupid stubborn runner????

(tempted to self censor but it’s my blog and I’ll swear if I want to)

I had my visit to the Doc today, which I almost missed because I didn’t account for the Football traffic. I rarely drive into town on a Saturday afternoon and now I know why. I thought leaving myself an hour to get from Blackburn to the City would be enough, but no, then the idiot car park attendant wouldn’t let me into the clinic carpark so I hightailed it to South Yarra (I have all my teeth, do I look like a Collingwood supporter?) and got a park in a side street just off The Tan, fortunately good for 2 hours. I power walked back to the clinic and made it 5 minutes late, fortunately the Doc was a bit behind anyway.

It wasn’t until I got to the clinic that I realised I still had my prescription sunnies on, so I had to sit there half blind through out

Anyway, a trip to a Sports Doc is far more fruitful than a trip to a GP, I spent a good half an hour in there and it was very thorough. I hopped up an down on each leg (not especially painful, just a dull non-specific pain and nothing sharp, phew), walked up and down the hall way, jogged up and down the hall way (again, no major discomfort), did one legged squats, stood on one leg on tip toes (lost my balance ). Then up on the table for a good dig around the calf muscles and shins, yikes, some tender spots in there, but no specific hot spots. Perhaps my pain threshold has become higher with all the sports massage because none of this made me yelp or want to jump up, it was just generally quite tender and inflamed.

So what’s the verdict??

Come on, I bet most of you are jumping up and down saying “pick me, pick me, oh Miss, pick me, I know the answer”

MTSS, otherwise known as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome, otherwise know as Shin Splints, Aghhhhh why me, woe is me, it’s not fair, I had been feeling so good, pout, sulk, sook, stampy feet etc etc, just wanted to get the hissy fit out of the way there really.

Next week I am off to be shot full of something radioactive and to have a bone scan, just to rule out a Stressie. My options were to rest for 2 weeks and go back to be re-assesed, or to get the bone scan asap to hopefully rule out a Stressie and be 100% sure of the course of action. I have decided that I would rather know than not so have decided to get the scan, so I’ll be booking that first thing Monday morning.

So now I have filled my prescription for the hard core anti-infamatries (warning, may impact mental alertness and coordination, so how will this be different from my normal state of being). In the consultation room I was also given some Dry Needling, which I was told is similar to acupuncture. I can honestly say, and bear in mind I have a pretty good pain threshold, that it was the most excruciating 3 minutes of my life. If the US Govt wants to get terror suspects to talk, screw 5 years in Guantanamo (sp?), try 3 minutes of Dry Needling on Shin Splints

They felt OK going in, the needles are incredibly fine, but within about 20 seconds, YIKES!!!! I was sweating buckets, gripping the edge of the consultation table, gritting my teeth and grunting replies as the Doc tried to distract me with chatter. Have you ever run into a car towball??? If you have, that tickles in comparison. Still the pain started to ebb and in the end went away, apparently the purpose was to try to release some of the tension in the muscle, and I can say it was bloody effective because I walked away feeling more comfortable than I had in a week (never fear, have not developed a false sense of security, know I must continue to rest)

Best case scenario, another 2 weeks rest then a gentle return, worst case, a minimum 4 weeks off due to a Stressie and then a gentle return. Apparently the lack of sharp pain when hopping, the fact that the pain would go away as I warmed up into the run and no pain at night or any specific pain when being prodded are good signs, but by no means put me completely in the clear.

So, good vibes, try to remain positive and try not to hate the pool and exercise bike too much.

And why am I fucking stupid and stubborn??? Because if I had have stopped a week and a half ago I would be a week and a half ahead in my recovery. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, someone smack me over the back of the head please, I have no one to blame but myself, Stupid and if I may indulge in one more burst of self pity I am incredibly pissed off with myself to have this happen at the start of the season I was looking forward to so much, I mean words can’t describe how pissed off I am. So now I must be mature, consider all the athletes who are so much better than me who have gone through the same thing and just deal with it.

Do as I say people, not as I do……….

And here is some damn sensible advice from the Doc (it all looks good in hindsight doesn’t it)

If it hurts one day at the start of the run but goes away stop and rest a day or 2, if it still hurts after you have had a rest go and see a Doctor, if it is OK at the start of the run and becomes very painful during the run STOP AND WALK HOME and see a doctor (the last one hadn’t happened to me yet, thank goodness)

Positive Thinking, yeah right

45 minutes worth of rolling hills on the exercise bike this afternoon, ughh. I have already decided that IF, and I mean IF, because I am trying not to think about the worst case scenario, I am off for a significant period of time that I am definitely hiring an Elliptical Trainer because I simply can not face the exercise bike for much longer.

It is a recumbent bike and I just can’t get a good enough sweat going, you have to work so hard to get the heart rate up that it is just too much trouble.

None of this really sounds like positive thinking does it? No, well, I am trying my best.

The good news is that my leg seems to hurt a little less each day.

The bad news is that my appetite refuses to diminish along with the reduction in exercise. Actually even worse is my tendency to turn to comfort food A) at this time of the month and B) when I am down in the dumps.

So I am trying awfully hard to stick to my normal generally healthy eating and resist the treats. Right now I would crawl over broken glass for a bowl of chocolate ice-cream, more disturbing is the fact that under normal circumstances I never feel like chocolate ice-cream I also have an almost unholy desire for marshmallows to for some reason, especially raspberry ones.

I refuse to weigh myself until I am running again, it just doesn’t bear thinking about.

Aghhhh, I’ll just have to keep playing Tetris to keep my hands busy.

Off to the Doc tomorrow, let’s hope for a positive diagnosis.

Hot and Cold

I woke up with nasty cramps this morning (women’s isheews ) and while I usually gulp down some nurofen and front up to work today I just wanted to stay in my bed. Afterall I have about 5 months worth of sick leave, I think I can afford one day.

So I spent a large portion of the day on the couch, drugged out of my tiny little mind on Nurofen Plus (Mmmmm, codeine) with Foxtel and a couple of hotties

I managed to drag my sorry butt up about 4 times during the day to whack the ice packs on my leg as well, these have truly become my best friends. At work I have a nice little ice-block in the fridge, wrapped in a plastic shopping bag, that has now molded to the shape of my calf. I have been using this 3 or 4 times a day to massage my calf as well. It was frozen in a styrofoam cup and I have had it since I had the PF, I’d hate to part with it now, we have history.

Anyway, must dash, a friend is over for dinner. The one advantage with this injury is that I was able to cook a proper dinner for a change, instead of my usual slovenly approach to entertaining which involves a dash to DJs food hall at lunch time for something to reheat. I have just pulled a rather lovely spinach and ricotta lasagna out of the oven, and the Peninsula 2000 Cab Sav I picked up last weekend is going down very nicely. In fact my leg feels quite good at the moment, could Cab Sav be the miracle cure??

Oh, and I did do some exercise today, a very tedious 60 minutes on the stationary bike this afternoon, yaaaawn.

And I will be doing my running vicariously on Sunday, I will be marshaling instead, any AV runners out there I will be the one shouting “THAT WAY, YOU RUN THAT WAY”, obey my command