Not the best day

Very early (and cold) start today, arrived at Fed Square at about 6am, parked and headed out for a 10km run. I am not at my best first thing so it took me a few 5:30 kms to warm up before picking up a bit and finishing pretty strong.

Having spent most of the worst of last winter with Stress Fractures I had forgot what it was like to run on a cold morning. It was only 6 degrees C, but then I thought of my Canadian blog buddy running XC Nationals in minus 7 and snow and frankly sucked it up because I have nothing to complain about In fact once I got started it was really pleasant because it was such a beautiful crisp clear morning.

Unfortunately my day went down hill when my other half called from an Ambulance at about 10am. He had blacked out while riding his moped and come a cropper, fortunately he was slowing down to turn into our driveway when it happened so things could have been so much worse. Anyway, he is OK now, apart from having his left arm in plaster, nothing broken just a bad sprain that needs to be immobolised for a couple of days and his days as a male model are over now that his two top front teeth have been smashed The hospital have said that the he is eligible for TAC insurance so it will be off to the dentist quick smart. This did mean a very long day at Box Hill Hospital in the short stay unit waiting for various tests. Home now, everyone resting, I gave him the night off taking the bins out

Our neighbour from over the road has been great, she helped him and called the Ambulance when it happened and bought some homemade soup over for dinner, unfortunately it was chicken soup but it was the thought that counts.

Nuttin’ much

Just a very very very easy 4.5km this morning, my beginner group had their last session today, a continuos 30 minute run. This came to 4.5km, their main goal was a non-stop lap of The Tan which was more than achieved, I was very pleased

I was going to do another quicker run this afternoon but decided against it, after only 22km last week I am looking at 55km this week so could afford to take a rest this afternoon, I can get back over 60km next week.

I am planning on 8km to 10km tomorrow morning, I have run leading in the afternoon (5km group) so have decided that I will start making Wednesday a double day and this is a gentle introduction. I may as well get used to it if I want to do a marathon next year, yep you heard right, 2009 is the year I will probably tackle the 42.2.

It will also give my metabolism a boost too, a good run before breakfast and then another in the afternoon will kick things along, you know us runners always thinking about the waist line. Yes yes yes, I hear you, I don’t look like I need to worry about my weight (and bless you so for noticing) but the irony is I don’t look like I need to watch it, because I do watch it, *sigh* ’tis a vicious circle.

Blah, Tuesday, generally the most dire day of the week really, last weekend a memory, next one too far away.

I’ll get going back to interval training next Tuesday, that’ll blow away the cobwebs.

Oh yeah, did more core work last night, I haven’t slacked off.

Something may well have been…

rotten in the state of Denmark, but things are downright disturbing in the state of Austria.

Hot on the heels of Natascha Kampusch who escaped about 16 months ago after being kidnapped and held in a basement for 8 years the latest madness to emerge from Austria is the news that a father kept is daughter captive in the basement for 24 years

Shocking huh!

Well, Daddy figured that in for a penny in for a pound and went ahead and fathered 7 kids with his daughter.

And hey, while he was at it may as well raise 3 of them as your own and leave the other 3 in the basement with Mum (the 7th died at childbirth).

Seriously, what the fuck!?

How they hell do you come back from something like that?

I’d like to be optimistic but I just don’t think you could.

Hitler, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Von Trapps and now this, Austria is not having a good run these last 100 years.

Running
Managed some of that, a relaxed 8km after work in just over 42 minutes, right leg holding up nicely with not a twinge to be had.

My new 2XU vest is proving to be my cool weather godsend, have worn it for my last 2 runs and it has kept the chill off my front very nicely thankyou. The weather has recently become very Autumn, our little Indian Summer is well and truly behind us now. There has been a bit of rain about, hopefully some has fallen up Warragul way where we will be running Round 2 if the season on Saturday. Sounds a little masochistic I know but hey, it wouldn’t be cross country without a bit of mud and cold would it?

Shame my XC spikes are white though, I mean, what were they thinking?

I put in my entry for the 10km run that is held as part of the Gold Coast Marathon today. I am not running this one as a goal race, rather I will be pacing my younger brother and sister to their goal of finishing under 60 minutes. I have the Ekiden relay the weekend before and a XC the following week so it will just be an easy run for me. I was supposed to run with them both last year but I was just starting my rehab from the cursed stress fractures and was a DNS. As part of the entry they asked for your 10km PB, it caused me near physical pain to admit my PB, I can’t wait to get than damn monkey off my back at Sandown in a couple of weeks. I know I will run a PB there, I am not in shape for a truly stellar run but I am damn well in shape to run better than 48:14!

I have a new goal now too, women need to have a PB of better than 44 minutes to gain a priority start at the Gold Coast, if it kills me I will run that time in the next 12 months so I can hold my head a little higher when I enter next year. As long as at least my brother or sister live up there I will be entering this event each year, ’tis a good excuse for a mid winter break up north.

Couldn’t wait another day, was going mad

That’s it, after almost 3 days of craven slothfulness I had to get my blood pumping again. I have had too much time stewing and was becoming unbearably narky, there had been no pain in my leg for 2 whole days and I could do single leg squats no problem.

At about 3:30 this afternoon I headed down to the Dandy Creek Trail to run my 6km loop, most of which is either gravel or off road. Turned out to be a fairly pacey one and I finished in 29:38, so much for taking it easy I started with good intentions but I felt comfortable and my right leg was not protesting in the slightest so I opened up somewhat and really cleared out some cobwebs. I had way too much time lounging about this weekend with all sorts of nasty little imps creeping into my ear and planting bad thoughts, it was good to clear my head on a lovely cool Autumn afternoon.

So now I can face the week with a degree of confidence that I can start rebuilding (I know, Again!) and look forward to the 6km XC on Saturday and the race against Puffing Billy on Sunday. I am particularly looking forward to Sunday because my step fathers sister (would that make her my Step Aunt? *sigh* Divorce brings such complications to defining familial relationships) will be down from Sydney as her other half is running the GTR as well. Of all my SD’s siblings she is my favourite and I rarely get to see her and I haven’t even met her partner yet, even though they have been together for years.

I did a spot of tidying up in my study today (AKA The Spare Room) and managed to unearth my end of year Grade 5 report, from way back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, flouro socks where in and way before Madonna affected an English accent and went all Kabbalah on us, yep, it was 1984. I was particularly taken by the commentary under “Oral Expression”

Emma freely (sometimes too freely) expresses herself in front of others. She does so with fluency and confidence.

Gee, does not sound like me at all does it? Methinks that was teacher speak for “she has a big gob on her and does not know when to shut and give others a turn”.

In a brief moment of housework procrastination I also downloaded some more music, I had a fancy to hear Justified and Ancient by The KLF but ended up accidentally downloading the original version, not the remix with Tammy Wynette which I really wanted, Grrrrrr. I grabbed some new stuff but also a couple of Van Halen tracks, from when David Lee Roth was the lead singer, of course.

I can’t believe that when I was doing my wrong crushes I forgot the God of ’80s Hair Heavy Metal glam showmanship that was David Lee Roth, cheesy as it was I used to think he was sex on legs with all that strutting and pouting

I promise, I also like normal boys too, I do, honest!

The car was closer than I thought….

…so I had to break into a little run to cross Glenferrie road lest I become the hood ornament of an obscenely large Tractor of the Toorak variety.

The news was good though, I did this instinctively meaning that A) I have a very well developed sense of self preservation and B) I no longer considered myself injured. There was nary a twinge from the VM, never fear though still no plans to try running until Monday, just to be sure.

I have been shamelessly indulging in a very lazy day, book-ended by a couple of outings.

I was roused at about 630 this morning by the Great Ringtail Possum Migration of 2008, in my semi slumbering state I thought I could hear distant thunder. As I became more awake I realised the noise was coming from my roof, curious I chucked my glasses on and peeked out my bedroom window, what a sight!!! A couple of trees in my front yard were practically boiling with activity and the phone line coming into my house had a couple of nimble Ringtails scrabbling towards my roof. As they jumped onto my roof another jumped down onto the phone line and took off down the lines into the next street. Meanwhile I could still see the others running around in the tree while a steady stream ran back and forth along the phone lines. I have heaps of Possums around my place but I had never seen anything quite like this mornings display, they were quite frenetic and I counted more than 10 of them. It was terribly cute and I crouched at my window for about 10 minutes watching their antics. Yep, I am a possum lover, a pretty rare thing in the ‘burbs as so many people seem to hate them. Fact is, WE cut their houses down to make way for ours so it is only fair that we share our space with them without moaning about them, I don’t care if they eat my plants (I am not much of a gardener anyway) and I have made sure my roof is well secured so have never had a problem with them getting into the ceiling. Anyway, you gotta admit, they are so terribly cute….

Outing 1
A little ramble along Glenferrie Road this morning, bought another couple of books from Readings. Generally I don’t go to a bookshop with a specific title in mind, I like to browse, read the back covers and wait for something to grab me. Today I picked up Kill Your Friends by John Niven, mostly because the first line on the back amused me;

It’s not dog eat dog around here, it’s dog gang rapes dog then tortures him for five days before burying him alive and taking out every motherfucker the dog has ever known

I am hoping for an Irvine Welsh type experience.

The other was purchased on the strength of the fact that Margaret Attwood gave it a glowing review, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

Of course I still have to finish my trashy novel (OK, I’ll ‘fess up, it is the new Marian Keyes and I am loving every minute of it) and then the “smart” novel I bought to read afterwards, ’tis my rule, must follow a trashy novel with something of greater substance, in this case A Farewell to Arms by Hemmingway (one of those authors who don’t really need a Christian name)

After Readings a pitstop at Haigh’s, I have Mar’s permission to eat some chocolate and drink some wine this weekend, so I shall I bought some chocolate coated nuts to scoff, Mmmmmm.

Finally I picked up a running vest from 2XU, after being sidelined last winter I am now preparing myself for some chilly early morning runs, not that I am complaining, give me a freezing cold run over Stress Fractures any time.

Outing 2
In order to stave off the atrophying of my bum muscles as a result of a steady afternoon of sitting on the couch reading I decided to walk to the supermarket to get ingredients for dinner. That’s about it really, trips to the supermarket tend to be pretty uneventful, I wasn’t attacked by a run away Tiger and a handsome stranger didn’t run up and give me flowers (I forgot to put my impulse on today).

Probably good news

Before I prattle on about myself let me note that today is ANZAC Day, a day that started to commemorate one of the first major military operations Australia and New Zealand participated in as a combined force. On April 25th 1915 Australian and New Zealand troops landed on the beach of the Galliopoli peninsula in Turkey, 8 months later 2 fledgling countries with small populations had lost 8000 young men they could scarcely afford to loose.

This is now a very important day to many Australians and New Zealanders and stands as a commemoration of not just the original ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Amy Corps) but of all Australians and New Zealanders who have died in war or served during war time.

ANZAC day for me is now also a celebration of life as my godson was born 7 weeks premature on this day 5 years ago. I don’t go to the dawn service, however I do spend the morning quietly at home (or having a run which I couldn’t today). Then head out to my best mates house for the birthday celebrations, generally lost of sitting around and stuffing my face with her mother’s excellent cooking, playing with Aden’s new toys and generally enjoying a leisurely afternoon. Today there was a new trick, as well as a kiss goodbye I also had to give him a high 5, with my foot

Now, the Good News, I had a massage last night, as I have not been to a doctor we don’t know if I have actually torn the VM so Corrie (AKA The Miracle Worker) was cautious. She did quite a bit of cross friction (back and forth) massage and if you have not had this done take it from me it does not tickle! The VM was not firing very well so it was woken up with a very technical and specialised technique, that is, Corrie slapped the muscle back to life This did the trick and I was able to flex the muscle, I was told to keep doing this intermittently last night and today, I am happy to report it has been twitching away on demand ever since and with no pain.

That is the other piece of good news, there was no pain today, I lead with my right leg and have been favouring my left leg instead. This morning I had gotten out of bed and fed the cats before I realised that my leg didn’t hurt, it didn’t hurt when I got out of the car either and it doesn’t hurt when I massage it, yay!!!

Phew, it is looking like I have probably just got away with a bad strain rather than a tear.

I shan’t develop a false sense of confidence however and will continue with my plan to take the rest of the weekend off, I can cope, just

In a way the break is good as it reinforces my desire to run, I would be worried if I enjoyed not running too much. Instead of going for a run this morning I sat outside in the warm and read a trashy book all morning, I begrudgingly enjoyed it.

Double Crud!

The V.Medialis is most definitely not happy.

I managed to take my 5km group tonight but the damn thing went mental when I tried to run up a hill towards the end and turned into a great big nasty crampy knotty ball of muscle and I had to let the group go with the other run leader and walk back.

So now I must try very very very hard not to be a snotty little brat, suck it up and take a couple of days off

I have a massage tomorrow night, if you are in the Croydon area around 5pm tomorrow and hear an agonised yelp that will be because Corrie has got the thumbs into the sore spot.

Curse it all, I just want to get back into the swing of training I am jumping out of my skin and had such fun planned for the weekend.

deep breaths
deep breaths

maturity
patience

It will only need a couple of days rest

and all that crap

Things could be much worse I promise not to be a brat.

At least I made a proper dinner tonight.

Crud!

My Vastus Medialis is not happy right now

I took the beginner group this morning for an easy run, 25 minutes running, 3 minutes walking followed by 5 minutes running. It was pretty slow going, the lead girl moving at about 6:30 minute Kms and the other one at about 8 minute Kms and with me doing my sheep dog impersonation running between the two of them.

I did a couple of short sprints back and forth but nothing too strenuous and all was going well until we finished and I felt a twinge. Then by the time I had almost finished walking back to my office I was limping

I have tweaked this muscle in the same leg a couple of times in the past, generally I have been back running again by the next day. So today has been a series of ice-pack for 20 minutes every hour and some anti-inflam cream. This did mean however that the planned 10km run this afternoon didn’t happen, bit of a bugger really because I had a full on afternoon at work and was looking forward to the stress release. Instead I made do with some more core work when I got home, just a repeat of the session I did yesterday morning. Thanks for the tips Flip, I’ll give those a go next week.

Not to worry, if it ‘aint alright tomorrow it ‘aint right tomorrow, shit happens, at least I have a well timed massage on Thursday afternoon.

Hope it does sort it self quickly though because I have a run planned on Friday around some tracks I spotted while Trailwalker training and I have been looking forward to it all week.

How lazy is this? I bought a pumpkin to make soup for dinner, along with a lovely loaf of fresh sourdough, instead I have just had a few hunks of the bread with a glass of wine because I can’t be bothered cooking

Excellent a bit of a return to form

Yes! Finally a run this afternoon where I felt a little more like my usual self, a relaxed 8.2km at an average of 5:07 pace. It started off slower and finished with some comfortable sub 5s, I am really feeling the effects of those iron injections now.

It hurts to laugh now, I got up about 30 minutes earlier than usual this morning and did some core work. I have seriously neglected this over recent months so it is time for some more discipline. As it has been a while I eased into it -

3 front planks of 30 seconds each
2 side planks (each side so 4 in total) of 30 seconds each
50 crunches
25 oblique crunches each side
1/2 set of 100s (would that be 50s then?) - if you haven’t done these they look innocent enough but they are a killer. They look simple when you see someone doing them but you really need to get the technique right so I am not going to try and explain it, I was taught how to do them by a Pilates instructor.

Hmmm, that’s all I got Mondayitis, a(nother) glass of red should help

Tired! it was only 11km

I had my “long” run this afternoon, well the longest since Trailwalker anyway.

11km at just under 5:20 pace, it was alright but I did start to feel a bit tired at the end. Worse still when I got home I crashed out and had a nap just as I would have if I had finished a proper long run. As I said yesterday I have found that the tiredness from completing Trailwalker is a very subtle one, my body feels fine now, no lingering soreness just an inability to run fast

I will keep plugging away this week, though no speedwork, I am sure each day it will start to feel more normal.

I got a bit of a bargain today, half priced pavers for some landscaping that I am having done, thanks to Mum hearing about the sale on the radio.

Here you go, Buster doing his stuff yesterday, I reckon this is pretty much the only time our Athletics Comp has made it into the sports pages