XCR09 Rd 3 – Sandown 10km Classic

Too much time off blah blah blah, it was never going to be my day today.

A very lack lustre run of just under 51 minutes, frustrates the hell out of me that what would normally be a fairly comfortable training run pace taxed me so much.

Flopped on the ground at the end and tried to keep my chin up, lucky there were some mates still in the finish zone (who finished waaaaaay ahead of me) so I could chat rather than wallow in self pity.

Jo and Corrie had a great day out and despite the long long long straight, which made for a very tough run to the finish and a head wind they both ran really well on the low to mid 44s, very proud of them

Some extremely good times as always from the boys in my club.

Time now just to concentrate on getting that fitness back and quit being a drama queen about it.

I wouldn’t mind just having a small hissy fit though, I’ve been very good, I might just go stamp my foot and have a bit of a pout, it’s not really a hissy fit if no one sees it is it?

Deep breaths, 5 weeks ago I thought I had a stressie, I don’t, I should be grateful to be running, irrespective of how poorly.

Ennui

because it sounds prettier than fuck I’m bored.

I am between projects at work at the moment, things will get busy again soon but right now I am going out of my head with boredom and indifference, I can no longer pretend to care that I give a shit about, well, stuff I am paid to give a shit about.

It’s all I can do not to sit at my desk and smack my head into the monitor until I get a concussion.

TFIF

I decided today that there was something in particular that I wanted to buy, so I spent lunch time trawling purveyors of all things DVD in central Melbourne because I wanted instant gratification, not order online and wait.

It wasn’t to be, no one had what I wanted, most had bits of what I wanted but not the whole thing.

So I have ended up ordering it online.

Now all I need is a rainy cold weekend so I can spend some quality time with The Mighty Boosh, seasons 1-3

Genius

Has anyone seen the advert on TV for the, hang on let me get this right, The Snuggie?

Allow me to summarise, it is a wearable blanket thingie, part Monks robes part adult sized swaddle, not just any blanket, it has arms so you can, well, snuggle but still have your arms free.

You can even wear it to keep warm at sporting events, because lets face it, once you own one of these things you no longer really care what other people think do you.

Time for a Mogadon milkshake and a long sleep methinks, all you need to complete the picture is some adult nappies and a Bedazzler to gussy it up a bit.

Oh oh oh, just trying to Google a picture, it gets better, the Baby Snuggie, I look at this and all I can think is “Quaid, Quaid, open your mind”, frightening.

All this from the country that bought us the Pancake and Sausage on a stick and Whole Chicken in a Can, I shouldn’t be surprised. Go on, click on the chicken link, I defy you to A) not vomit and B) not be struck by a sudden desire to watch Eraserhead.

And another thing…

This is what happens when I post while watching TV.

Did you miss the big Spelling Bee in the US today? Damn I did too, it’s OK I have the inside scoop, look away if you taped it to watch later, the winning word was Laodicean, nope, I haven’t heard it either but there are no squiggly red lines underneath so it must be a real word, it means “Indifferent to religion or politics”, well timed really because it perfectly sums up how I have been feeling every time I watch the news or read the paper lately.

Ok, cats going crazy, time to sign off and feed them before they start eating my toes.

It must be getting close to my mid-winter break, my mind is mush, I can’t hold on to a thought for more than 5 minutes at a time.

I am struggling to even construct a sentence right now, hence a slow down in blogging of late.

Went for a great run on Tuesday night, I was leading the 5km medium paced group, normally around 5:30 to 5:40 per km. Instead we went out strong and ended up getting around in just over 26 minutes, I had a small pack with me and there was another run leader to take the rest of the group at the usual pace. About half way through I thought, this is going kill me, I am going to blow up any moment here but I was happy to finish full of running. I think because I have had such a slow month that I had forgotten I could comfortably run at that pace.

I don’t think I am going to manage 5 minutes Kms over 10km at Sandown on Saturday though

Next week I am going to let myself sneak up to 4 days a week, yay, happy days.

You know there are a thousand thoughts and ideas and things I want to comment on zinging around in my head at the moment but I just can’t drag them out in to a coherent post and still 5 whole weeks before my break, aghhhhhhhhhh.

So, still here, still rebuilding, body still holding up, just a bit fuzzy in the head

Stopping to smell the trees

After running up and down and all over Mt Dandenong during Trailwalker training I wanted to go back take my time and have a walk around some of the trails. Being that I am not running consecutive days at the moment and I had no desire to get on the stationary bike today I figured I would get a decent enough workout walking up and down the side of a mountain.

I’ll dub this the Three Lookouts Walk because it took me from my Mums house, up to the TV transmitters (wow, really big up close and lots of noise from the wind going though them) and Burkes Lookout, over to the Sky High lookout and finally down to Kalorama which looks out over Silvan Dam. Mapping out the tracks in the Melways it looks like a pretty big haul, but it came to only 10km in the end, just lots of up up up followed by the inevitable down down down.

Of course I resisted to urge to run, except for a bit of steep down where it was easier to have a little trot rather than try walking down, inevitably I’ll be back in the not to distant future to run it instead

It took me about 3 hours, 2 hours of walking and the rest stopping to pat a rather sweet little Beagle, take some pictures, look at the views, have a drink and use the loo at Sky High, all up a far more pleasant way to spend a morning than going no where on the wind trainer. It was a fab day too, the weather has been amazing all weekend, more reminiscent of a prelude to spring than the dying days of autumn, we really need some bloody rain though.

This is where TV comes from

Looks tempting hey, but I walked

Not so much a track as a mere suggestion of a trail, probably would still be laying there with a broken leg waiting for Lassie to send for help had I tried to run down anyway.

From If I could to Stagger Lee

I lost a couple of hours of my life to You Tube last night, I am sure I am not the first.

It’s been 20 years since Triple J started the Hottest 100, for the first couple of years they would do the Hottest 100 songs of all time, however, inevitably, the same songs were coming in the top 20, sprinkled with some current favourites. Therefore they switched to the current format of the Hottest 100 songs of the previous year.

They’ve decided to revive the old format in the middle of this year to celebrate the 20 years and this is what led me to my lost hours on You Tube, how on earth do I decide which are my favourite 10 songs?!

My You Tube adventure took me to some scary and unusual places…….

1927, Boom Crash Opera, Pseudo Echo and Aha, basically I used to be attracted to drippy looking non threatening boys with dark hair and soulful eyes

From there I visited

Fields of the Nephilim, Sisters of Mercy, Ministry, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails and Tool, I’d moved on to scary looking, brooding boys with dark hair and possibly soulless eyes (but they often seemed to wear dark glasses or long fringes so one couldn’t really tell), a substance abuse problem and a propensity to borrow my black eyeliner and talk a tremendous amount of shite also helped. I was doing the gothic three step all over the house last night

Jeff Buckley got a look in – cue dark hair and soulful eyes and maybe just a little bit drippy but in a slightly more grown up way, shame about the whole not being alive thing.

I finished with the man who won my tender heart as a wee 15 year old and has held it ever since, porn star mustache and all, Nick Cave, nappy clad in The Birthday Party, filthy and growling in Grinderman but always captivating, hey, wouldn’t you know it, dark hair, the eyes are more piecing than soulful though.

There was also some Joy Division, New Order and very briefly The Cult, just for Ian Astbury’s impossibly perfect long hair.

Still totally undecided about my 10 favourite songs though, but I don’t think If I Could or The Best Thing will get a look in, sorry fellas.

Running
A very easy 9km Run Leading this morning, it was a gorgeous morning at Jells Park today. Now that the cold is almost gone I am full of beans again and was prowling around the house so I went for a walk after lunch. Desperate to go for a run again tomorrow so I’ll go for a bushwalk instead, the rough plan is to leave the car at Mums house, walk up the side of Mt Dandy on one trail and follow another back down again, something to tire me out and stop me climbing the walls.

I will not be beaten!

I went for an easy and gentle 7.5km run after work today. I was standing in my usual spot by the Yarra river, staring through the haze of a fog that never fully lifted and waiting for my garmin to connect with the mothership it occurred to me that what used to be an almost daily ritual felt oddly alien.

After entering today’s run in the log I checked back to see when I had last been in that same spot heading out for a run on my own, it had been 4 weeks! May has been pretty stagnant, 2 weeks rest at the start of the month followed by a gentle return after being told I didn’t have a stress fracture (hallelujah) that was promptly interrupted by a virus and another 4 days off. All my running since my short break has been either in a race or run leading and coaching, so it was wonderful this afternoon to finally head out on my own.

It was nothing special, slow and a little laboured but wonderfully, mercifully pain free, the cold is still lingering though which does not help matters.

I am on my way back again, I’ve missed it, but feel that I have dodged a bullet so easy does it.

It appears I left Queensland just in time on Monday with the south east (where both my brother and sister live) receiving more rain in 24 hours than Melbourne has probably seen in 3 years.

My brother had a prang when his car hit a flooded spot on them motorway and developed a mind of its own, the car is a bit of a mess and probably a write off but my brother is fine.

I found the picture below in the newspaper online, it’s the back of the shopping centre where my sister and brother-in-law have their shop, the bridge is over what is usually a meandering not going anywhere in much of a hurry river. I always look over the bridge when we drive over because there is a path by the river and I always say “hmmm, must try and find a way down there on my next run” and my sister always says “I don’t want you going all they way down there by yourself” by my estimate the water level is about 20 metres

Oh dear, my television is starting to turn funny colours around the edge of the screen and is intermittently emitting a strange noise (though that could just be that I have accidently flicked on to American Idol), I think I may have to finally concede to upgrading to one of them new fangled plasma thingies I keep hearing about, will have to go see a certain friend who can save me the hassle and just tell me what kind to get, can’t be stuffed doing all the research.

Bleaughhhhhh

Because someone I work with is very caring and sharing and decided to bring their virus to work last week I spent my whole long weekend laid up on my sisters couch feeling sorry for myself.

WHY do people insist on coming to work when they are sick, no one is that fecking important, few things piss me off more

I’ve got the tail end of it now so am probably not contagious anymore but am still feeling a bit wiped out so am home for one more day (at my house, go back from sunny Queensland last night) languishing and getting my strength back.

This means that I didn’t run one step while I was away, I could barely walk 10 minutes without needing a sit down. Considering I was walking about with a heavily pregnant women this worked out well, a trip to the shops on Saturday meant stopping at every second bench for a sit down. Not entirely a bad thing, I had my two weeks off, ran 3 times since and have now had four days off, any remaining niggles should have well and truly settled by now.

Despite being sick Queensland was lovely, perfect weather and great to catch up with family. My sister is looking very well and I had a few chats with my niece or nephew to be, mostly to ask him/her not to give my sister too much of a hard time on the way out in a couple of weeks.

Ok, new beginning this week, an easy 5km run leading this afternoon, another easy week or two and time to start thinking about that half marathon in September.

Bloody cold though, I hate being sick

mumbo jumbo

Apparently the full moon is going to cause Capricorns the world over to take leave of our senses and temporarily loose the ability to express ourselves.

Of course I don’t believe in such nonsense but I suddenly find myself struck mute and totally bereft of inspiration

Easy 5.5km run last night, felt great, legs didn’t give me any bother.

Tomorrow is Friday in Em’s world, I am taking a 4 day weekend and heading up to Queensland on the real Friday morning to visit my very preggers sister, miss her heaps and can’t wait to see her in all her glorious fecundity.

Back on Monday with a few more runs under my belt.

XCR09 Rd 2 Lardner Park 4km XC

Q – How happy was I that I was able to run cross country yesterday?

A – Very

And due to some mucking about with my Garmin on the start line I had no idea what time I ran until the results came out. Probably for the best really, after 10 days on the bike it was never going to be a good run, better I just get around and enjoy being out there. But of course I need a challenge though, so about half way around I decided to take on the Frankston runner who was right on my shoulder. I got her on the last hill, but because I didn’t want to check behind me, owing to the fact that I was hurtling down the long hill to the finish and didn’t want to go arse over in front of everyone, I had no idea how much of a lead I had on her. Some mates were giving me a cheer about 200 metres from the end so I decided to make an effort and kick a bit, another friend yelled out that I had a decent gap so I just kept running strong to the line.

I just checked the results and I ran 19:30 even for a tough course that was a pretty shocking time for me to run, cest la vie, I’d have been happy to have run 30 minutes rather than sitting on the sidelines and I really enjoyed myself yesterday.

I did wear spikes, there are some short sharp hills, ditches, a fence to jump (ok, climb over) and a long hill to finish on, if I wore flats I’d have fallen at least 5 times. It’s been a while since I wore the XC spikes and I did roll over my ankle a few times, but no damage.

The good news is my shins feel 100% fine today, I iced and took another anti-inflam at dinner time and gave them a massage before bed. Of course I am not going to be lulled into a false sense of security and start training like crazy, so it was back on the bike this morning for a lack lustre 45 minutes, with another planned for the afternoon.

My plan for the next three weeks is just to rebuild slowly, no speedwork and no consecutive days. Essentially the first half of the XCR season is a write off, I should be in form for the Half Marathon in September and then fit and ready to start chipping away at my 1500 time by spring/summer.

P A T I E N C E

Ughhh, I hate that word

But it is what will get me through this year without a stressie.

I took some pics yesterday, unfortunately photography is not my forte.

The hill to the finish, not straight down the year, we ran across the field and then down

The Open Men lined up to start

Our #1 runner Iseyas

Our #2 young John getting ready to make his move

Two more of our men about to tackle the hill at the start of the second lap

Exhale

Thank God, Allah, Jehovah, the flying spaghetti monster, Buddha, the Jedi Council and for good measure let’s chuck in Satan as well, I don’t have a stress fracture.

As I suspected just a case of shin splints and not even a particularly nasty case at that. The Doc had a good prod about my shins and didn’t think they were too bad (all that icing and anti inflaming in the last 10 days has obviously done the trick), not good enough to avoid the dry needling though. I was laying there on the bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to think happy thoughts, turned out to be not so bad this time, just a little sharp intake of breath but no sweating and clenched teeth, this means that there was not too much tightness in there.

So I am allowed to run the 4km cross country tomorrow, I am going to have to find my land legs again, it won’t be pretty but I don’t care, I can run again.

I have just been told to train conservatively for another 4 weeks, which includes not running consecutive days during this time so I’ll still be spending some time on the bike, keep up the icing after a run and take a voltaren 25 before I run (lucky they don’t upset my tummy). I am going to look at going back to Pilates again too, it does cost a bit but I did feel the benefit when I was going regularly a few years ago.

This means that the Sandown 10km on the 30th is not going to be a PB run for me, it will be a pack the ego in a box and run for team points run, I can’t complain, at least I am running.

The Doc was very impressed that I had stopped running as soon as I wasn’t sure; she said she understood how difficult this decision would have been for me but I absolutely did the right thing. Could it be that I have finally learned to read the signs my body is trying to give me?

Phew, what a relief.

Thanks for all the kind thoughts, I must have the most watched shins in running

PS – Last year when I had my second stress fracture I quoted another Melbourne runner Lisa Weightman who is far better than I will ever be and who has also, like me, faced repeated bouts of stress fractures in the past. As it happens I read another interview with her today and in some spooky serendipity she has recently taken a small break to rest a minor injury. She is quoted as saying

It takes more mental toughness to stop and rest than to train

Amen to that honey.

BTW, if you ever google yourself Lisa I promise I am not injury stalking you