countdown.....

I can walk pain free, finally!! Hopefully this is the way of things to come.... physio before work tomorrow, hope he gives me the run-ahead, I'm really missing all my running friends. Even almost missing the cold, dark, wet 5am starts!! :)

Clairie - I am definitely up for cheerleading if I dont run, even if I do I'll be there to cheer the guys doing the Full with you :)

Just walking

Really missed my Saturday morning run this weekend, cant believe its less than a week till GC and I can't run!! Been doing my strengthing exercises, taking the pills and 30mins walking a day, no big change, if anything it seems to hurt more, perhaps thats just because I'm more aware of it now. Not holding my breath about GC at the moment but trying to remain positive until Tuesdays physio session at least. I think though at this stage, if I do run my only goal is going to be to finish, probably 2hours plus....... :( Ho-hum, must think happy thoughts, reckon theres some chocolate around somewhere to help with that!!!

all messed up....

Well, I've not run since Tuesday morning now, and after going to the physio today it'll be at least Tuesday before I run again. My right leg and lower back is all screwed up (I'm sure he used a more technical term!) and I now have anti-inflamatories, a walking and a strenghthing programme to follow over the weekend, then he will tell me Tuesday whether I can run at the GC and with or without the aid of a cortisone injection.... not too sure about that one. Will just have to wait and see I guess.

Can't walk properly, never mind run :(

TT this morning, wasn't so good. Didnt get even close to my previous PB, the whole way I struggled; felt a bit dizzy and my leg was giving me some pain. The day didnt get any better, by lunchtime I could barely walk. By 8pm when I left work (gotta love end of financial year!) my boss has informed me he is already sick of seeing me limping around after one day and is going to make sure I go the physio tomorrow... so that told me. No intention of running tomorrow morning and probably not Thursday at this point in time either. Talk about bad timing though :(

Very cold 18km long run

My oh my it was cold this morning, brought me straight back to my UK days! 9C someone mentioned, but with the wind off the water and without any sun the first 15mins of the run were a bit icy to say the least!

The plan for today was 1.40 to be done by leaving Southbank, heading down towards New Farm, a quick lap of New Farm park and then back over the Victoria Bridge to the Ship Inn. I made much better time than I thought I was going to though and actually ended up doing a solo lap of the Botanical Gardens to bring my time up, finishing on 1.37, I would have been happy to have done 90mins as I'm still feeling a bit of tightness at the top of my leg, still, 10 hours after I finished my run (lots of stretching was done afterwards) I am not feeling overly anxious about it. I am having Monday night off Touch (got the excuse of a work dinner) to give myself two days rest before the time trial, which if need be I will take fairly easy.

2 weeks and 1 day to go!

Easy morning session

This morning session 4x1km at 3kmTT pace, well that was what it was meant to be, but I could still feel that pull on the top of my leg. I explained it to Pat & he agreed taking it easy (and the ol' tennis ball massage) would be the go.

Unfortunately 'taking it easy' is harder to do that it sounds and on the first km I found myself finishing in 4.22... On the next Km I ran alongside a girl who was aiming for sub-4.50 splits and offered to pace her. Helped her (I hope!) and me to keep to a decent time. The times would have been 4.30/4.40/4.45 I think, I felt really 'un-worked' afterwards but my leg felt no more painfully that it had at the beginning.

I've sat around all day waiting for the pain to get worse (as it did after Tuesdays run), but so far so good, just the same niggle as was there this morning. All being well I'll do my longrun Saturday, but if not I might go for a slightly shorter/slower one on Sunday to just allow that extra day. TT on Tuesday, so want to be fit for that! :)

Early morning run.... 100meters :(

Back to being an unhappy runner again today. This mornings plan was a 50min slow run, so I got up at 5.15am, ignored the fact it was pelting it down outside and got dressed to run. My leg had been giving me a bit of pain while walking since Friday, but running on it (Saturday and Tuesday) had not been a problem. Well that all changed this morning. I managed about 50meters before the pain made me stop. I tried stretching it out a bit more (while getting soaking wet) and running slowly, I managed about another 20meters before I couldn’t go any further and had to give up and walk back to the house. Even the walk was painful. As it was still only 5.30am I got back in to bed, my whole leg was throbbing at this point, even without any weight on it. I am not happy with this discovery! L

I’ve been having a sharp pain at the top of my leg since Friday, originally I thought it I’d just trapped the nerve or something and it would come good, I managed 20km’s on it Saturday morning no problem, it was a bit sore Saturday afternoon when walking around, but fine Sunday morning and all day Sunday & Monday. It was fine for my run Tuesday morning, so I assume whatever it is was triggered off by the hill session, as it was very painful all day yesterday just walking around. My muscles don’t hurt as such, just the ankle & knee joints & just below the hip… will have to see how I go walking around for the rest of the day… fingers crossed!!

Hills! Hills and more hills!

Brief summary of todays early morning session.... hills, followed by some hills, then back to the Ship Inn via a bride (aka a hill!!) It was hard work, but I don't mind the hill session, I even managed to actually sprint up the Goodwill Bridge when I got to it. Only two hard sessions left before a slight ease down to the GC!

Rest Day

Phew, Legs feel fine today!! No Touch tomorrow, so double rest day, or perhaps if I find some motivation a swim as a bit of cross-training... water is too cold for me this time of year though, so I'll need a real good reason to get down the gym!

Last long run before taper..

I was really keen to put in a good effort this morning as it was the longest run I would do until the GC, I feel the nearer I can get to half distance before GC the more confident I will be in running the half on the day.

Original aim was to run 20km slowly at 6min/k's, but didn't happen! The first 10km's were run fairly well paced, at the end of the floating walk way we picked up the pace a bit to get over the hill and on to the Story Bridge. Between 12-15km I was feeling good, by the time we got to Southbank though my legs were starting to hurt, must have been knowing that the Victoria Bridge was almost there, as soon as this was cleared it was a home run. 20km done in 1.46.30. The intention wasn't to time it for speed but to compare to the run I'd done two weeks previously. Felt pretty good after the run, will be interesting to see if I can say the same tomorrow though!

(not a) graphic account of hard morning session!

Well, a certain part-time member of the running group this morning (you know who you are :)) asked for a graphic account of the full session, if I wasn’t still tired from it I probably would oblige, so instead, in brief;
Warm-up run from Southbank to Botanical Gardens via Victoria Bridge & Edward St. After some run-throughs the real fun began! 4 mins effort, followed by 30sec SR, followed by 2mins effort with 30sec SR, turnaround and repeat back to the start. The when at the start another 4 min effort, this time 2 mins out and 2mins back culminating by running up the hill at the river stage. Phew! Jog back to the Ship Inn via Victoria Bridge.

I can't believe there are only 6 remaining morning sessions till GC now. On Saturday I have my longest run to date planned, I’m hoping to do 20km/2 hours slow and easy (still on “looking after knee week!”) before the tapering starts next week.

Been giving my goal time for the GC some thought also, my original plan was to do anything sub 2hours (1.59.59 was fine!) but I’ve been given a pacing calculator and I’m not sure anymore now what to aim for!

Run by the sea!

I had the day off work today so was able to start slightly later on my scheduled 50min run. With the extra time and the later 7.15am start I decided to drive down to the beach and do my run along the path there. Just that extra hour later made the run so much hotter, probably running by the water with the sun reflecting off it didnt help much either. I completed my pretty uneventful run in 49mins which was a good effort, probably didnt do much more than 8K but I'm still concentrating on making sure my knee doesn't get knotted up again, so slow and gentle is my moto this week :)

morning session

Really felt it this morning, legs were definitely a bit sore from Sunday. 60/30/15sec efforts with 60/30/15sec JR in between. Dont mind this session at all, even if the run back to Ship Inn did finish me off!

Whats happened to my blog!?

Can anyone out there please tell me why there's a big space at the top of my blog!!!?

Recovery day (and Touch)

Well, I woke up this morning and was slightly hesitant about putting my feet down on the floor; I could already feel my calves slightly tight, though I thought that might have been case as they’d been tight during the actual run. Best foot (okay, leg, okay, it was my knee I was thinking about) forward… left leg, check. Right leg (bit nervous about the knee) check!! Yaay, I’m pain free!

I’m meant to be playing Touch tonight, but am thinking of giving it a miss, or at least just playing half the game. Last thing I want is a repeat of last week’s mishap!

Doomben 10,000 - a good day all round!

Approached todays race with a little bit of caution. My knee was feeling okay, but I had been constantly massaging the sore spot since I was shown how on Friday, and hadn't done more than walk on the leg since Thursday morning. I promised myself that if I felt any pain I would slow down and if need be pull out.. though I wasn't sure how well I was convincing myself as a DNF wasnt the result I wanted. My aim was to run 5min/k, having broken 50mins on the Nike run I had no real goal and wanting to keep healthy I thought it better just to run at a steady pace.

At the start line MJ told me she was aiming for around a 48min time, I felt this could be realistic and told her I would aim to run this with her, but if my knee gave me any trouble I would just pull back. Well, the gun went off and we all went out fairly fast, I didnt realise quite how fast till I reached the first km in 4.13. This was a bit of a shock so we tried to drop the pace a bit but still reached the 2nd km in sub-9mins. By 3km I was joking with MJ about making sub 45min time and that we should ease back a bit or we'd have no decent goal for the next 10km. I took on water just before we crossed over the railway lines for the first time, the only managed to swallow a mouthful, I wasn't too bothered, I knew I was well hydrated and it wasn't a hot morning. At about 4km I started to break away from MJ, I was feeling good my calves were a bit tight and I made a mental note to make sure I stretched them out more before the GC.

At about 6km my knee began to feel a bit sore, I made myself pull up the pace a bit until I reached the 7km marker, well I thought it was the 7km marker but it could have been the 6.7 or 7.3 possibly as the final 4km's were double-marked which really confused me. I think that there was one sign for the Half & one for the 10km but unfortunately the only way to tell was to read the bottom of the sign, which is hard to do when running, perhaps if they'd colour-coded them like they had the bibs it woudl have been easier. Anyway, accordinly at one stage I almost thought I was on a 45min finish, I rounded the next corner expecting to see the end and instead just saw another corner! I turned in to this one and got filtered over to the left for the 10km finishers, a sign said a 100meters to go, but it was a funny 100meters, around the back of the stadium, there was no one else with me at this point and I almost thought perhaps I'd gone wrong!

I crossed the line with a time of 47.30, which is almost a 2min pb. For a run I was meant to be taking fairly easily, I was more than happy with this result. Perhaps even more surprising for me though, than getting the pb was to find out I'd come third overall for my category. The awards at Warwick were nice, but I'd always felt a bit of a cheat; fresh legs, small field etc, so to get this was really good.

Hopefully my knee will be okay, I took the precaution of not doing the 2.2k Doomben Cup and resting and stretching instead... will have to see how Monday morning goes.

I can ruuuuuuuunnnnnnnnn!!!

Well today started off a little bit scary, appointment at midday to see what was up with my knee. When I came in to work I had an email from a very LOUD person (you know who you are :)) telling me to do some squats, and explaining where and when it should hurt if I had ITB. Well, there was no pain, so longs you dont count the painful looks the other guys in my office were giving me. This was a good start.

Then at midday off to the physio. He made me do some more of the squats (getting quite good at them now) and told me the problem was probably caused by twisting/spraining my ankle and then running slightly off to compensate, meaning that instead of my ankle taking the impact, my knee was and had ended up really twisted and mangled. Some deep massage (ouch) later on I feel like I have a new leg! My knee is still a little sore, and he has said it may always be (not because of this, I could just have a sore knee anyway) but the good news is, that it shouldn't hold me up for more than a week, if that. He's even said I can run on Sunday so longs I follow all his stretching and warm-ups and promise to stop the second it causes pain.

So, today I am back to being a happy little runner again! :)

No, no, no.... I just want to run

I am not a happy little runner this morning. Having pointed out the 'point of pain' to a couple of the runners at the session this morning they both told me it could be ITB... so not happy about that little piece of information! I have always had a 'niggle' in my knee, ever since I got hit full force with a hockey ball while playing about ten years ago... I am hoping that after Touch on Monday night and then a big run on the Tuesday morning, its just sore and not the dreaded ITB.
However, I have promised myself that by the end of today I will have an appointment booked for somewhere to get it checked out. I dont know whether or not I should be running on the weekend either now, I was meant to be using it as a guage for my GC pace.

Anyway, every cloud has a silver-lining and all that, so on the plus side my ankle is feeling much better today.


[update] I have an appointment tomorrow at 12pm - yaay me for doing something proactive about it... fingers crossed its a happy ending.

Oh no!! I'm broken!

Aggghhhh - my knee & my ankle aren't happy with me at the moment. I did a good long stretching session last night to try and help but I dont know if it has. I had my alarm set for 5.15am today but as soon as I woke up I still felt really sore, just in the right leg. I'm really hoping that its from playing Touch on wet slippery grass on Monday night & will sort itself out after having this morning off running.

Fingers crossed.