missing the run

Four days, have gone by since the dreaded ITB diagnosis, the days in brief are as followed;

Wednesday - all stretches completed
Thursday - ITB specific stretches and a 30min walk
Friday - all stretches completed
Saturday - ITB stretches completed and a 30min walk
Sunday - all stretches completed, 45 min walk, 20min of pilates video.


I have been applying anti-inflam gel as recommended by the physio.
Today I bought a pilates video. Having done pilates weekly in the UK I can see where a lot of the stretches I've been given for recovery are moves in pilates. Unfortunately the gym I now go to only has one session a week (10am on a Tuesday) as it doesnt seem as popular here as in the UK, and according to my physio Melbourne and Sydney yet. I am looking in to finding a class in the city to go to at lunch, as other than my posture I believe it would help my running as well. In the meantime I am going to try and do the DVD a couple of times a week to get back on track!

No run; went to the physio (and wished I hadnt)

I decided to not run this morning, seemed a bit silly going for a run then a couple of hours later rocking up at the physio complaining about a sore knee! Probably just as well I didnt as I've been told I have ITB. He gave me some ultra-sound and a heap of stretching exercises. No running for a week, other than the allowance of one gentle 5km at the weekend. No fair, I want to run further than 5km, I was getting all geared up for a Mt Cootha trail run next weekend as well..... best play by the rules though and get stretching I suppose!!!

Literally couldn't get there!

Isn’t it just a terrible thing when you get up at 5am to go running but your garage door won’t open!! No, not happened to be me before till this morning either! Couldn’t believe it, I could have easily used the “I ran Noosa” excuse but decided to go along this morning anyway. At 5.30am though I had to give up cursing the garage door and just went for a gentle 30 min run instead. In hindsight it was probably a good thing, my ankle is still bleeding and I am slightly sore, nothing that my trip to the physio tomorrow hopefully won’t fix.

Just for Minersrun....

This one's for you (and anyone else who cares to look!)

http://www.smellephant.com/images/gallery/Fiji-2005

Noosa Report

Well, there it is, Half Marathon number two is complete!


I drove up to Noosa on Saturday afternoon, arriving at the registration centre about 4pm, just as the guys I was staying with were thinking about heading off to the caravan site. Picked up my number and my ultra small t-shirt (there was me thinking I was being clever, ordering a small because they're normally over-sized and USM had produced womens sized T-shirts instead!)
We settled in to our cabins back at the caravan site; I was sharing with Gywenth, Tim, Scotty & Ciaran, but before long most people had come in to our cabin to share some carbo-snacks before going out for dinner.
Dinner was a good laugh, the service was sloooooooooooow but this was a good chance to catch up with some of the guys whom I only ever see at race meets, and exchange stories of past and recent events.

At about 10pm (after the footy!) we all turned in for the night. Despite being on the worlds lowest bunk (floor level) I fell asleep pretty quickly, unfortunately I did wake up at about 2.30am really cold and never really got back to sleep again after that. No matter, at 5am I got up, quick shower to warm & wake-up, packed up our bags and headed down to the starting area.

I decided to run with the 1.50 group, hoping for a time similar to the GC, but equally as happy to just run it as a longrun and enjoy myself. Unfortunately Tesso, who was meant to be one of the pacers for the 1.50 was unable to run, but still, two guys who I knew were there and things were looking good. We started right on 6.30am, the morning was beautiful, a very slight breeze, but not a cloud in the sky, warm but not too hot. I was feeling good for the first 5km and although my intial plan was to stay with the pace group until about 8km, when I got to 6km I started to creep ahead. Just 15meters ahead, myself and another girl who I knew ran together for a K or so, she then dropped back a bit, but I was still feeling good and carried on, enjoying watching the lead pack start heading back the other way. Knee was feeling good, back was feeling okay, there was a slight rub on the back of my heel, but I'd taped them up so thought that shouldn't be a problem... I was wrong. At about 9km I stopped to try and pull my sock up a bit, with the idea of easing some of the rubbing; my hands were shaking though and I didnt do a very good job. I lost a bit of time doing this and saw the 1.50 group not too far behind. Still felt pretty good though, and the boost from MC Pat Carroll calling out my name at the turnaround point, and all the Regatta/Pat Carroll guys cheering on the side was a real boost. I got to about 12km before my foot was really becoming sore, the 1.50 group were only about 30secs behind, I gave away the idea of making an impression on my GC time and just relaxed. A couple of points, about 15 and 18km and I wanted to give up. At 18km Liz (pacer for 1.50) caught me, but she must have been going a bit fast as she pulled up for a bit, only to take me again at about 19km. I kept Liz in my sights and just began to look forward to getting over the final bridge and to the finish. Nick (other pacer) ran the final 100meters with me, getting me in at 1.49. Not a PB, but under the 1.50 and I was happy...ish as the moment I stopped I was in agony. My right knee, which I thought was okay felt like it had a huge amount of pressure expanding on it, I looked down and half-expected to see it blowing up like a balloon. My left heel was covered in blood from where the blister had been rubbing. Still, a trip to the first aid tent, lots of stretching, a cold shower and a couple of anti-inflammatories later and I was feeling a bit more human.

The drive home wasn't as bad (sore) as I thought it was going to be, I'm going to make a physio appointment tomorrow though. This last week, I have just been feeling good and fluid again, don't want to spend another two months taking it easy!

The morning was great though, lots of CR's on the course, and of course plenty of other runners I knew too. Jodie won the Womens Half, which was just fantastic. Clairie & Matt were superb and everyone had a smile on their face when they were out on the course. Definitely in the diary for next year!!

Noosa!

Off to Noosa, sports drink, jelly beans and new shoes in tow!!

My race plan is simply to have a good time, no real ambition to better my GC time (though obviously wouldn't say no!). Tesso and Lizzle are pacing the 1.50, so I'll start with them and see how I go. I've only done one long run since GC and that was only 90mins, so it'll be interesting to see how I fare!... *watch this space*

New shoes, 40min run and night fishing!

Went and bought some new runners today, opted for the Brooks Adrenalines again - I probably was the easiest sale the guy had that day. Walked in, asked for my size, quickly slipped them on to make sure the new colour didnt mean a change in design and bought them.

I got home about 6pm and put the new shoes on and left for a run down to Shorncliffe. I'm not sure how far it is, but I'd say about 7km. The bloke and a friend were down there doing some night fishing (full moon last night), so I hopped in the boat (caught nothing!!) and got a lift back home with them.

Easy session

Easy session at Pats this morning, 1 min easy efforts with 30 SR, then 30 efforts with SR. Felt pretty good for the most of it, bit of pain on the run back to the Ship Inn... think I'm going to get some new shoes, these (Brooks Adrenalines - Dec '04) aren't as supportive as they use to be. I have a pair of Saucony too, but find them a bit heavy and clumpy. Might just go with the Brooks again.

Been to Fiji....

Well, I took my runners, but I didnt use them! I did swim/dive/walk a fair bit though, so hopefully that'll compensate somewhat!!?!

Happy runner again!

There’s no denying it, I love to run!! Recently I have been entertaining the idea of not running, don’t know why, think I was just getting down about not being able to run fluidly and without pain for the past couple of months. After Sunday’s effort, a nice morning run on Wednesday and this morning speed session, I am back up on Runners Cloud Nine and ready to put in the miles again!!
Having said all that, I have kinda decided that once the QLD Series finishes (end Sept) I will probably ease off on the race meets for a while and just put some training and build up some stamina. Since March this year I have run in eight official races, and have two more planned. I think I might like to do Canberra next year, and as if I’m going to something I’m going to want to do it properly, I think they’ll be some serious long runs going on in the New Year anyway!

As for resting, I’ll be doing a fair bit of that over the next 5 days, for tomorrow I’m off to Fiji! Got a 90 min run planned for Saturday/Sunday, but we’ll see how that goes!

45min gentle run

Wow, it was cold this morning!! I set off at 5.15am from home for a 50min run. To make up for not going to Pats hill session on Tuesday morning, I decided to do a loop course taking in two fairly large rolling hills. One thing I will definitely say about setting off in the dark, cold mornings, is how great it is watching the sun come up. From the top of the hill I can see Clear Mtn/Mt Nebo region and watching those hills become silouttes and then coloured hills certainly put a smile on my cold face!!
All in all I ended up doing 45mins, leg was a bit sore, but I put this down more to cold than anything else, as soon as I showered and stretched I felt okay again.

The sensible option (for a change)

Its not often it happens, but today was an exception and I decided to do the sensible thing and not go to Pats. Slightly influenced by the fact it was hills, though not because I don’t like the hill session, I do, but because out of all sessions this one probably has the largest impact and is most likely to cause a flare up in my leg. After running B2B fairly hard on Sunday and then playing Touch on Monday, I decided that coupled with a Wednesday long run of 50mins and a Thursday session, I was really going to be doing myself a favour with a morning off from a hard session. I’m intending on going out this evening for a gentle 5km, there’s a couple of rolling hills near to my house that I might even take in to compensate a bit for not doing 15mins of hard hills this morning!

I have also, sadly come to a decision that this season will be my last Touch season. I often don’t get home from work until 7pm, couple that with 3 mornings at 5am during the week and throw a couple of 8pm/9pm Touch sessions in and it just becomes a bit much… something has to go, and I’ve decided it’ll have to be the Touch team!!

Bridge 2 Brisbane.... back in the running!

Well, all I can say is that I had a FANTASTIC morning this morning. I've never done B2B before, but have wanted to for the past two years and for various reasons (no training/jetlag) never taken part.

I headed to PM's house at 5am and we drove down to New Farm to catch the bus with the rest of the guys to the Gateway Bridge start. There was thousands of people (a record 20,000 in total I'm told) there. Scotty & I last Matt while we queued with hundreds others for a last minute toilet stop, and then headed down to our red marker start, which behind the Elites sent us off first.

The gun went off and Tess, Lizzle, Ciaran and a couple others flew ahead of me. Tesso had said something about running 4.45's, but if that was the pace she was doing I was just going to have to accept I was going to be much slower!! I absolutely LOVED running over the Gateway Bridge, barely noticed the gradient as I looked across the city and the bay, the most beautiful morning and before I knew it I was heading back down the otherside. Matt had caught me up by this point, and we ran down the bridge together saying hi to people we knew. I told Matt to carry on as I would be running too slow for him, but he kept with me, saying he was treating the run as his Sunday long run, not as a race. I was feeling good as we came off the bridge and had a nice rhythm going. At 5km I'd taken about 40seconds off my Jetty2Jetty time of just two weeks ago. Matt said something about 4.40 pace, and I was feeling relaxed and happy with this. As we moved towards the city, the river on one side, people cheering on the other I was feeling great. A slight ache in my lower back, but nothing that was getting worse, and I told Matt that at this pace I was going to be okay. I reached the 10km marker with a new PB equivalent and was soon kicking in to cover the last two k's.

I crossed the line and stopped my watch at 56.16. Very happy, as my goal was anything around 58mins, though the 11th K was a bit tough going, and I was really glad to have Matt there encouraging me along!! Equivalent of 4.41k/min and taking the bridge in to account I'm feeling quite good about running again!! :)

Flat on my back all night....

Until about 3pm yesterday I was feeling pretty good. Managed to do a couple of speedy efforts in Pats session and things were feeling okay. Then it started, at first just a lowerback twinge and a bit of a limp when I walked.. by 6pm I was in agony. At 7pm I headed out to the chemist for some anti-inflammatories and spent the next couple of hours lying flat out on the floor to try and reduce some of the back pain. My leg was throbbing so much at one point it tingled all over. I dragged myself to bed at about 9.30 and lay very still, till I slept.
Woke up this morning feeling a bit better, as a precaution I took two more pills after breakfast, I am now going to see how I go. I dont like dosing up on medication all the time, I'm never sure it if its just numbing the pain rather than actually curing it.

Felt slow, fast, slow, fast....

6x400meters today, with 60SR. The first 2x400meters I struggled with, but then, as per usual lately I found I warmed up a bit and kicked in a bit of speed for the 3rd one... quite impressed as well, as Pat has moved the marker further up the road, so this rep was actually a bit further than the first two. Kept my pace for the return to the finish, then lost it a bit for the next 2, but managed to regain some for the final effort and back to the Gardens.
As per every Thursday following a time-trial, it was the no watch 1km today. My prediction was 4.44 and I came in at 4.52, so only 8 seconds out, pretty good pacing I thought :)

Put in some serious effort this morning, so hopefully things are coming good.

no run

Bad me, bad leg, no run today......

a not so quick time trial

Its taken me a day to write up this particular entry, as I have been considering what I can blame my 3kTT performance on… shoes are fine, clothes didn’t rub, wasn’t raining, didn’t feel ill, leg is almost feeling normal again.. not really sure what happened on Tuesday morning, but it wasn’t what was planned!

The first K wasn’t too bad, 4.12 at the turnaround point which had me on target for the 12.45 I had as my A-goal and to beat my previous PB (from two attempts ago). I reached 1500meters in 6.18, perfectly on track still and continued to climb the small hill and head towards the 2km turnaround point. I reached that at 8.38, over, but basically all good. Someone must have stolen my legs between the 2km and 3km markers and replaced them with a complete non-runner pair; despite encouragement from Matt, Jo, Glenda and a whole heap of the guys at the finish line I couldn’t drag myself there under 13mins, let alone under 12.45. A disappointing morning, which I can only put down to a reduction in K’s recently while I’ve been trying to get my leg better and just a bad run on the day. Not much else to say about it really, except more work needed!!