Sunday 26 June 2011

Robo Tiger

Just a quick update, with some self portraits. I have tears in both plantars, 13mm x 5mm in left and 3mm x 3mm in right. I've been in a boot for 1 week, will get an MRI 6 weeks after my last run, late July, to make sure the tears have healed before resuming running.


So the focus for now is working on functional strength under the direction of fellow 800m athlete and physio Ben Liddy, to ensure the muscles are good to go when it is time to resume running. Minimising wastage to the left calf, keeping both ankles mobile, retaining glute and hip flexor strength and range of movement and protecting my back from standing lopsided all day are the main concerns. I am able to cross train on the bike and rowing machine, but they bore me senseless, although I forced myself through 90min on the stationary bike this morning. One of the major concerns with runners returning from injury, is that they can be too fit from cross training, this won't be a problem for me :-)

This contraption is designed to mobilise the talo crural (ankle) joint.




Anyway, good luck to all doing Gold Coast i'm expecting some big performances and at this stage i'm still planning to head up and support my little squad. I'll try and get hold of a bike so I can get around on the course, hope to see you all up there.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Joke is over

I did a warm up and a few strides, very sore doing anything faster than jogging so time to pull the pin. Happy enough that I did everything possible to run a decent time. I knew I was playing with fire with a rushed prep and wouldn't do anything differently given the short build up time available. Will rest for the next few weeks and still head up to the Gold Coast and jog the marathon, hopefully all these long runs under the belt will come in handy if I ever decide to try another one.

On a positive, it gave me some extra time to head to McDonalds for my standard 6x Cheeseburgers. Seriously how good is Macca's? I was watching Masterchef and some fancy pants chef had the contestants preparing a burger and chips. Seriously mate, Macca's Cheeseburgers are perfection, give up.

As soon as I parked the car I could smell Lamb Shanks and the awesome aroma was coming from Millie's kitchen, woohoo. I can't wait to get stuck in, and i'm told she's also got sticky date pudding with cookies and cream ice cream for dessert. I'll be 80kg's by the time Gold Coast comes around.

Monday 13 June 2011

Pay Day

27km-2:06.07. Very easy in Centennial and just the one run today and one run tomorrow, want to be fresh for a long tempo tomorrow arvo. I'll try one last roll of the dice, 16km's at 3:45km's in the heavy shoes and orthotics.

Got my first multi bet collect for this footy season after losing four times on the final leg - grrrr. Quite a nice pay day courtesy of Sea Eagles 13+, West Coast Eagles and Swans by <24.5. You can lose your money, but never lose your confidence :-)

Sunday 12 June 2011

Boring as Bat Shit

37km-2:42.00. Started in Centennial with Molly, ran through the city and back to Centennial for last 15km's. Very slow to start, freezing, windy and bucketing down but last 17km's all sub 4min's.

176km's for the week, good volume but mainly junk again, unless next week is better i'll just head up to the Gold Coast aiming to 'enjoy' the run and scrap any time goals.

Saturday 11 June 2011

Deja Vu, Call the Whambulance

AM
Out on The Bay for a 6km Tempo 7:00am kick off with Fats. Last week I planned the same session but couldn't get going. Today I got up at 4:30am to get the body moving, lots of walking soaking my feet in hot water and a long warm up. I'd also run very early 3x this week to try and condition my body for the 7:10am start at Gold Coast.

From the first step of the tempo I was in trouble again but did a deal with myself to get to 2km's and reassess, went through 500m in 1:45 but in agony, jogged through to 2km-7:18. I had to pull the pin, it wasn't as painful as it has been but felt like I was about to do some serious damage. Fats ran well 21ish without company, improving quite a bit on our last tempo.

All up about 10km's of rubbish again.

PM
Like last week, I started to feel good as the day progressed, so I headed to Centennial after work for take two. Managed 21:58 for the 6km tempo, faster than last week but felt comfortable with the pace. Even though i'm running slowly I feel like i'm very close to good fitness, i'll keep bashing my head against the brick wall and hopefully it'll all come together in time.

After the session went for another massage with Jean-Louis, he had the knife handle for a weapon again. Apart from the blistering skin from the burning frictions it was much less brutal than last time.

22km's for the day, feeling ridiculously fresh.

Friday 10 June 2011

You can't catch me

AM
10km - 49:55. Very early around The Bay. Needed a rest day, pulled up lame after yesterday's effort. Aiming for a good 6km tempo with Fats tomorrow, followed by another sesh with Jean-Louis.

Had a great day at work today, started with a bag of gingerbread men baked by Mrs Fats. Akira absolutely loves gingerbread men, do you think I could save him at least one? Of course not, they were too good and gone by the time I finished massaging Fats's calves, for today's massage we will be using paw paw balm and chewed biscuit crumbs.

Decided to put on our coats and head to Trovatino's for afternoon tea, I was planning to get Akira a gingerbread man but somehow forgot and got myself a jam and cream donut. The gang at the cafe are pretty good mates with the little guy and thought I was a little cruel, first Anniko gave him a spoon of strawberry ice cream, then Karen another spoon of strawberry, then boss man and ice cream maker Joe gave him a spoon of raspberry and mascarpone. It was pretty funny watching Millie trying to feed him dinner, 'he doesn't seem very hungry tonight, what did YOU feed him at the cafe?'. 'Nothing sweety, eat up mate'.

Thursday 9 June 2011

Ice Bath

AM
9km-42:55. Quite early around The Bay, great atmosphere with heaps of hardy runners about regardless of the cold temperature, just too dark to identify any of them apart from Action, Cam, Mark and the old lady with the massive fake cans.

Sitting in my ice bath writing this rubbish to try and distract me from the pain. This is the 4th time 'ice' has appeared in my blog title in the last 7 days, ice has been a prominent yet unwelcome part of my life for the last few months.

Planning 3x2km (10min cycle), 2x1km (5min cycle), 2x500m (3min cycle) this arvo.

PM
16km's in Centennial. Ended up doing 4x2km (10min cycles), too sore to try anything quicker. I couldn't warm the feet up, even did a 5km warm up and extra drills and strides but nothing good was going to happen in these conditions. Took it easy 7:15, 7:05, 7:00, 6:54.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Thin Ice

AM
9km-40:52, Wenty Park.

PM
22km-1:45.00, Centennial nice and easy with Molly and The Saint, briefly joined by Copey and Crazy. Feeling fresh and hopeful of a better session tomorrow.

Millie is on thin ice, she got a bit cocky after the success of her impossible pie and has come home with Adora Cream Wafers. Granted, there is no such thing as a manly biscuit, nor quiche for that matter, but nothing screams feminine like Adora Cream Wafers. Watch yourself Millie, this is getting serious!

Edit: I have to apologise to the Current World's Best Wife, Tim Tams were already in the cupboard.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Roll the dice

AM
10km-50:10. Out at 5am with Molly in the city. Good test, I haven't attempted to run early for a while. Very tough going at the start with a few 6min km's, but not too bad after that. Saw plenty of runners out and about, awesome way to start the day.

PM
12km's including 22min fartlek (5.83km's, avg 3:47km's). Around The Bay, had Copey on his easy 16km for company, somehow he spent most of his easy run in front of me during the fartlek. Took a punt and ran in the racing flats  - Adidas Adios, without orthotics. 450m and 18sec per km quicker than last Tuesday, happy with the progress. I tend to struggle with fartlek, 3:35km's is normally as good as I get, it'd be good to improve another 10sec or more before Gold Coast. Decided to stick with the racing flats without orthotics until and including the race for all sessions.

Monday 6 June 2011

Nutshell

AM
9km - 42:02. Wenty Park.

PM
20km - 88:20. Around The Bay with Copey and Daniel, started slow but finished strong.

Looking back at the weekend, Emma and my respective tempo's sum up our Gold Coast preps in a nutshell. Emma with a very patient and well planned prep has been going since November and hasn't missed a single run, let alone a key session. I've rushed a 14 week prep and have only completed 2 key sessions and missed a heap of running. On Saturday I killed myself to run my initial target marathon pace for 6km's whereas on Sunday Emma managed a controlled 24km's 21sec per km faster than her initial target marathon pace. There are no shortcuts to success, but I'm pretty sure we already knew this.

Sunday 5 June 2011

Molly's Long Tempo

30km including 24km-1:45.31 avg 4:24km's.

Around The Bay for Emma (Molly's) Long Tempo. Her PB is 3:29 with her most recent being 3:34 in Melbourne 2008, she has been managing our 35km's on grass in 4:45ish km's so no doubt she is in 3:15 or better shape. I took the watch off her and told her we'd be running 4:35km's as relaxed as possible. My intention was to run 4:30km's and to push 4:25km's for the last 8km.

The plan went out the window when Molly ran the first 2km's in 4:19km's, I tried to get in front and slow the pace but she just kept going past and cranking it back up again so I just went along for the ride. She ran controlled the whole way and the only slow km was a 4:35 whilst she took her gel. Really impressed, depending on how well she recovers from and absorbs this effort I suspect a 20min PB might be on the cards.

144km's for the week, promising but still terribly slow.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Progress

AM
9km-43:40. The things I know that aggravate my foot are:- running in the morning, running on hard surfaces, running in light shoes and running fast. With that in mind, I headed out the door at 6am to run on the bike path around The Bay in my racing flats for a 6km tempo.

At 3km when I was supposed to start the tempo it was pretty obvious nothing good would happen if I stuck with the plan, so I carried on with an easy jog with the plan to leave the tempo for after work.

PM
14km's including 6km-22:34 3:46km's. Mix of grass and bike path in Centennial in the heavy shoes, a big improvement since Tuesday's fartlek.

Some great running this morning at The Sydney 10km, nearly all clients ran pb's with the rest getting very close. The depth in Sydney running has improved alot this winter.

Friday 3 June 2011

Light Ice Cream

Wasn't going to bother posting today but Millie insisted that I report that her Impossible Pie was a winner last night, bloody delicious! The only fault was the ice cream and that was my fault. Stupidly I inadvertently bought 'light' ice cream which I didn't even know existed and is truly vile. Are you bloody kidding me? Surely nobody eating ice cream gives a crap about the fat content, if they did they'd be eating fruit or some other healthy rubbish. This is an abomination, get this watery puke-worthy crap off the shelves now.

Last thing I wanted after 2 months of resting was a rest day, but felt it was my best chance of doing something decent tomorrow and backing up for Emma's long tempo on Sunday.

6km Row 25:07, 1km further but 4 sec per km quicker than the last time.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Bum Bandit 500's

AM-Rest. Millie and Akira came to town for a check up and visit. All is well at 30 weeks and it's looking like a big baby.

PM-13km with 10x500(3min cycle). 97, 95, 93, 90, 89, 88, 88, 87, 86, 82.

Had originally planned to avoid all Vo2 sessions, but the interrupted prep means I need a hurry along to  get the threshold work back on track quick smart. I chose a session that I felt I could run fairly quick but controlled without putting too much pressure on the feet. Ran in the Adidas Adios with orthotics. Reps were in a straight line and I set the garmin to 510m so imagine it's fairly accurate, either way who cares, the session served it's purpose. Regardless, the last rep made me feel like a man, good to be moving again.

Did the reps at the back of Lachlan Reserve, the best quality running in the park, but also where the queer blokes meet to satisfy each other in the bushes. Under the threat of any poor step leading to an uninvited visitor at my back door I managed to improve with each rep.

Millie is walking a fine line, apparently it's Impossible Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream tonight. I'll see how it goes, but no way it could be better than Tim Tams.

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Chugging along

AM
9km-40:03. Wenty Park. After some advice from Caleb I decided to try my Adidas Bostons with orthotics which are lighter than the Adidas Glides. It felt great, it was difficult not to crank up the pace but I miraculously held back.

PM
19km-90:00. Centennial Park. Back in the heavy shoes, ran with Emma, Daniel, Rabbits, Carter and The Saint. I will try another session tomorrow, hoping for some improvement, might try the Adidas Adios with the orthotics to give myself a chance of something decent.

Thanks to everyone who informed Millie that the luxurious lifestyle to which she has become accustomed was in extreme danger, 1 packet of original tim tams in the fridge tonight.