8km | Bloody hard work My Runners World 10km program (aka "get off your lazy arse program") had me down for 6x400m hill reps. I ran 2km warm up around the Junction and landed at Ruthven Street feeling little niggles all over. Not wanting to have a sook or anything but my big toe was looking pretty festy, I had a calf strain in the left leg and my quads were still complaining from Sunday's STaR. OK, sook over. I stretched first and ran each hill pretty hard, turned around jogged down and then did it again. By the last rep my lungs were burning and quads were crying. Ran the long way home to warm down. GPS says 8km all up. I think I'll find me a sports massage gal/guy to iron out some of these kinks. Also gota see Andy the Pod about this manky toe (but might leave that until after Striders 10km just in case it leaves me out of action for a spell). Mood: ---> :|

16.18km | 97:04 | 5:59/km pace Today was my first STaR. That would stand for Sunday Training Run I guess. We met at Queens Park and ran the Clovelly Canter. Hosted by Horrie and accompanied by 14/15 runners we set of in cold conditions but very quickly warmed right up. Lots of hills and great coastal views was the order of the day. I finished fresh and felt pretty good. I am a bit stiff and sore in the legs this evening, my big toe also seems to have puffed up again and my second toe on the left foot is sore. Mental note: run more on grass ! I reckon I'll have to visit Andy the Pod sometime this week to see about this toe. I had a lot of fun this morning and hope to do many more STaRs, family commitments permitting. Mood: ---> :)

OK, so I pierced the toe from under the nail. Gloops of watery blood came out and I sensed an immediate reduction of pressure under the nail. So I guess its all good. I could upload a photo, but that would be way too much information. Mood: ---> :)

This is from Marathon-photos. Hands up who needs to lose a few kgs.... Mood: :|

35:00 | Easy First Run After a few well deserved days off (due mainly to my ever blackening big toe) I ran last night (brrr) up and around Bondi Junction / Woollahra. A few niggles appeared mainly in my left calf and hammy. I stretched afterwards and took anti-inflamatories. I think I will run my first STaR (Sydney Striders) on Sunday. I cant usually run a Sunday STaR as its location prohibits me from getting home on time to take my son to football. This weeks looks a goer however. Afterall, its a local starting at Queens Park which is 500m away. Looks like I'll take the newby 7.00am group as I haven't really ran at 10km pace for many months, so best that I take this one easy. New Day OK, so I've run the 1/2M but instead of it leaving me content with my effort - on the contrary, I'm hungry to improve. I've revised my goals as follows:- 10km - sub 47:00 C2S - sub 75:00 Syd 1/2M - sub 110:00 I will work on a new program aimed to get my 10km times down. This should not be too hard. Over the next few months I will lose a few more kgs and adopt a program that involves Hill Reps and Intervals etc. I've realized that to run fast you have to train to run fast. All these past months have been largely easy runs, mainly due to injuries. I have pinched the pace chart from McMillan Running and saved it here based on my 10km goal pace. I will continue to run the majority of my Sunday long runs on the grass/soft surfaces to lessen the impact on the old legs. Stay tuned. Mood: :D

Well I can report that I'm a little bit sore in the quads, calves etc but nothing that 30mins of yoga can't fix tonight. My right big toe however feels like its been smashed by a sledge hammer. Yeowch ! There is a storm brewing underneath and its all turning dark purple. I found a thread on CoolRunning on the subject that said:- "If is due to pressure build-up from fluid ( this is like a blister) under the toenail you can "drill" the nail to relive the pressure. This can be done with a straighten-out paper clip. Heat it in a gas flame until it is red hot. Then hold it against the nail, to burn a hole thru the nail. Do this some where in the middle of the nail. This should go right thru and the fluid should drain out of the hole. It does not hurt ( you have no nerves in your nail) but it may not be for the faint hearted. It is important that the position of the hole is such that fluid is drained. If not maybe a second attempt will be required. Clean up or bath in some antiseptic. If you drain the fluid the soreness should dissipate in a short period of time. Some or all of the nail will die and fall of in about 4-8 weeks." Yeah right. Like I'm going to stick a hot paper clip into my toe ! I'll take a few well deserved days off and wait for it to settle down I think. Mood: :D

21.1km | 2:00:20 I've had the flu for the past week, no running means no blogging. I only started feeling OK on Saturday, so I was amazed how good I felt this morning (must have been the sudafed with redbull chaser breakfast !). I met up with a heap of CRs before the race and at the gun settled into a slow pace with Omni. We were swept along with the crowd and realised after the first KM that we were running at 4:20/km pace ! Way too fast for me so we pulled back and tagged along with Horrie for the next 6/7km. I was without my GPS for this race (couldn't get a signal under the buildings) but must admit that I lost my way with pace. It wasn't until the 15km marker that I looked at my watch and saw 1:28:xx. Yowza, way too slow to crack 2 hours. I was feeling pretty good and decided that I would bring it home hard and try and finish under the big 2:00. I lifted my pace through the gardens and ran hard, no very hard, down Macquarie, Hunter & Pitt up to George Street to Argyle. By then I was on the money for a sub 2 finish. I ran neck and neck with the clock and passed hundreds (OK tens) of people in the last 1km along Hickson Road only to finish 20 secs off the mark. Arrrgh ! No big deal and very happy with that result. A big thank you to Larry the Physio and Andy the Pod for your work in the last months. Great to catch up with all Cool Runners, Cool Bloggers & Striders today and to finally meet the lovely Queen Luckylegs (albeit on the run). Mood: :D

13.5km | Moderate pace | 76:46 I left early this morning in the same kit that I will wear for the half. Mainly to test the temperature at 6.30am to make sure that I wouldn't be too cold next Sunday. No problems in a singlet it seems. I ran my favourite course from Queens Park to Bondi via the coastal walk and back. Its a great course because it is so varied. Parklands, up and down coastal headlands and lots of hills. I ran for about 1km and stopped to stretch (something I'm trying to do more often now). My calves were stiff and sore again. This went away after about 3km and at that point onwards I felt really great. I finished fresh as a daisy, stretched and iced. Huh ? No injuries to report ? Shhhhh. Mood: :D

12 days to SMH 1/2M 8km | Easy | 51:35 I ran down to North Bondi tonight. Tired legs. Niggles. I'm thinking that this taper has come just at the right time. My body is asking for the rest. I have a calf strain in the right leg, archilles strain in the left. My ankle ligaments on both feet seem to be cranky as well. This made running very restrictive and uncomfortable. I will do yoga/stretch for 30mins on Wednesday and interval spinning on Thursday. My next run will be 10km on grass on Sunday afternoon. Mood: :|

17km | Easy | 116:21 I left home this morning at 6.15am to run the Centennial/Queens Parks loop. To run 17km, I needed to run two 7km loops and one 2.5km loop of Queens Park. Its then 500m back to home. I mixed up 600ml of Powerade, donned my Striders singlet & CR cap took off. Right from the start my calves and ankles started to complain, still smarting from the beating they got from Nail Can Hill. I stopped after about 1.5km to stretch for a spell and focus on the job ahead. I think it took about 7 or 8km for all the niggles to settle down. After that I just felt very leg weary, but surprisingly fresh above the waist. Based on a 2 hour finish in the half, the calculator at McMillan Running suggested that I run around 7:00/km based on todays run being another Recovery Run. It seemed very slow but I think in hindsight my body actually appreciated the break. I stretched for quite a long period afterwards and found that my left calf was quite sore and tight. Ice and voltarin seemed to work well again. I finished a touch under 2 hours but really don't care about the time. Time is no longer an issue to me and for the next two weeks its just a matter of keeping fit and fresh. Mood: :D

16 days to SMH 1/2M 10km | Easy I ran on the road last night along Oxford Street into the CBD, turned around at Hyde Park and headed back. My calves were cramping on and off the whole way. Once I got into a decent rhythmn, the cramping would ease off. However when I had to stop at a red light, it would start up again. I figured that it wasn't a muscle tear, nor was it really bad muscle strain, so I ignored it an ran on. I concluded that running through the pain must be character building. Right ? After long stetching, shower, ice and a couple of Voltarin - I was fine. I have decided not to run Striders North Head on Saturday. At this point I cannot run twice in two days without causing some grief. My long run for the half is more important. Thanks everyone for the sound advice. Mood: :|

Just posting my 1/2M program again. I am undecided what to do this weekend. Larry the Physio says that I shouldn't run both Saturday and Sunday. Fair enough too I guess. That leaves me with a dilema. Do I run the Striders 10km at North Head and drop the Sunday run ? Do I run Striders and then run 7km on Sunday (as suggested by Larry) ? Do I run Striders, hand in my bib and then run for another 3/4 hour to top it off ? Last option is to drop Striders altogether and run my 17km only. Hmmmm. Mood: :)

30 mins | Recovery Yeowch !. My hammies, glutes, quads, calves and any other muscle down that way are still complaining big time. I ran last night on the grass slowly, no very slowly, and started to feel a little better once I got warm. I stretched afterwards and then did a 1/2 hour stretching/yoga video. I'm feeling 100% better today. I should be able to resume full training Thursday. This muscular pain thing hits me every race. After each Striders race/fun run I cant walk freely and remain stiff and sore for days. No matter what I do, cold baths, cool down runs, long stretching routines - I get the same post race dramas. I think I know the answer however. I dont TRAIN to run fast. Every run is at easy LSD (long slow distance) pace. So every month or so when I race, my body freaks out. Based on that theory, my mission after the 1/2M is to train to run fast, rather than to train to make a distance. Of course I can only do that once I am totally over these dreaded shin splints. Let see if that makes a difference. Mood: :)

11.3km | 64.11 What a great weekend ! We flew down on Saturday morning and were met by CR Ripley at Albury airport. Lunch at All Saints Winery followed in what was not the greatest race preparation, but certainly fine food and wine. Now to the race. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this would have to be up there with the toughest circa 10km races in the country. The race starts at the other end of town at Lavington and runs along fire trails up Nail Can Hill and along the undulating ridge and then down to the banks of the beautiful Murray River. The course map is below: I ran with Ripley for the first two k's but slowly pulled away. After the 2km mark the trail started to climb steeply and rose hard for the next km. As I ran up the steep incline as many as 80% of the runners were forced to walk. I ran all the way up to the first water stop at 3km. I took 2 cups of water and walked while I drank. The trail continued to rise from 3km through 4km. At this point I was dreading that I decided to race in a longsleeve dri-fit instead of a singlet. It was only 5 degrees at the start and with a misty rain falling I thought that it was the right move. I was overheating bigtime and was contemplating running shirtless. From 4km to 8km the trail undulated up and down. I found that my Adrenalines were not giving me the grip on the rocky clay/sand trail that I needed and many times going either up or down a hill I found my footing slipping. As I figure that much of my running will be on grass/dirt in the future (to avoid injury) I may include a pair of trail shoes in my rotation. At about 8km we came to the end of the ridge and a quite dramatic drop back into the valley. Many were running down the trail at pace but I didn't feel comfortable so I kept the brakes on and ran with small steps for the decent which lasted about 1km. This did not do great things for my shin splints ! Maybe if I had more trust in my shoes I would run it with a different attitude next time. The course then dropped down to the river for an easy 1.5km sprint to the finish, which I ran hard. I ran through the finish shute with a great cheer from 1,000's of locals and met up with my wife and friends. My splits were:- 1km 7:08 2km 6:25 3km 8:51 4km 5:46 5km 5:32 6km 4:52 7km 5:10 8km 5:42 9km 5:35 10km 4:56 11.3km 4:09 I'm stiff and sore, but remain pumped for the half in 3 weeks. Ripley is coming up for the half as well and he finished strong in 69:xx. I think he surprised himself today and he'll do good to put that in the bank for the half. Good to finally meet CR Blogger Flashduck today as well ! Mood: :D