This is my last Blog for 2005. I am under the pump at the moment to get everything ready for the break, so little time remains for myself. Wishing all my fellow bloggers a very Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. For those Sydneysiders, I hope see you all at the Forbes on Friday afternoon. Marty. Mood: --->

9km | 50:00 | Easy The day started early with a 7.30am swim down at Bronte before Nippers. No waves to speak of today so I missed out on my usual body surf. A boring swim in the pool had to do. The kids had a fun time anyway which is the main thing. Santa arrived on a rubber ducky and gave the children a message of peace and tolerance on the beaches. I don't think they knew really what he was talking about but it was a nice touch anyway. So after more Xmas shopping, before our annual Street Xmas party, (Santa arrived on the back of ute and gave a message that his beer was empty) and whilst the kids were at a birthday party at Fox Studios, I managed to squeeze in a run in the park at around 3.00pm. It was really hot in the sun this arvo so I stuck to the shaded inside fence run which is mainly on a well worn trail and occasionally traverses the odd deep sandy patch. I ran without too much drama with both the manky toe and shins behaving themselves today. Shins seem to be doing well enough to maybe take a quick road run during the week. Maybe Thursday with Tuesday back down at the beach. Mood: --->

I see from the RESULTS recently published on CoolRunning that my official time is 108:18 which is 10 seconds more than my watch. Grrr. Mood: --->

45:00 | soft sand With my shin splints and manky toe still on the mend (both now nearly healed), it was down to the beach again for half a dozen laps. It was hot and humid with only a few people about. I shared the beach with only one other runner - a South American looking woman in her 20's running in a one-piece cossie. She ran with a hip wobble like she was doing a salsa. Very odd but I wasn't complaining about the view - thats for sure ! More odd than that was a guy standing at the rail of the SLSC Tower practicing his Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions. As I passed him on each lap he would be saying something like "If it bleeds, we can kill it" or "Hasta la vista, baby" or "Come with me if you want to live". LOL. I finished feeling pretty buggered but at least this time around my legs held up OK. I'll probably try and get down there again at dawn on Saturday and go around again, this time maybe for 60 mins. This weekend is pretty full on, so I hope I can squeeze in a run. Mood: --->

30:00 | soft sand Needless to say I had the beach to myself last night. The wind was coming straight off the water, blowing the rain and sea spray sideways. Yep, the only fool out there was me. Anyways, this was my first run since last Tuesday when I did the too-much-too-soon-run after the half. This time around I was carefull and ran within myself. I finished feeling strong and without any real sign of shin splints on either leg. My toe is on the mend after I lanced the blood blister under the nail and dosed it with hydrogen peroxide. It's still a little tender so I'm guessing that my Sunday run will be shoeless on the sand. Mood: --->

I was catching up on the overnight C2K shenanigans this morning. A bunch of CoolRunners and the odd CoolLurker are running the 247km journey from the beach down at Eden to the summit of Mt. Kosciuszko which is an amazing 2200m ascent. Thoughts go out to fellow Blogger VirtualRunner who (as at 5.30am) was battling sleep deprevation after running through the night. He's currently at 158km. So it looks like he'll finish around dinner time tonight. I hope I get a chance to sit down with one or two of these guys over a beer one day. I have so many questions to ask them. What do they eat, how often do they drink and most importantly how do they cope with blister management. Here's me just getting over two blisters from Sunday and I only ran for a little under two hours. I'd also be keen to know how they handle recovery which is pertinent for me at the moment. It seems that my Wednesday run down at the beach was a little too enthusiastic and I was really paying for it yesterday. I was reading the McMillan website last night and it indicated that my recovery run pace should be a nice and easy 6:30/km. Nice and easy was not what I did down at Bondi, slogging it out in the soft sand. Needless to say I didn't run last night and will leave it until maybe Sunday night before I head out again. My other problem at the moment is my manky big toe. I first trashed my toe at the SMH 1/2M in May. I finished that race with a huge blood blister under the toe nail which I had to pierce to let all the gunk out. I lost the top half of the nail and it only recently started to grow back and look decent again. Now after Sunday its all festy again and ready for futher surgery. Stay tuned, I might even capture the proceedure on webcam and upload for the world to see ! Kidding. As my 4yo daughter would say "Eeew, gross Dad !". Mood: --->

30:00 | soft sand Well I cant say that I was all that thrilled sharing my normally deserted beach last night, with hundreds of people down there escaping the heat. The fact that most of them were backpackers in bikinis from Switzerland called Lara, probably made it a little more bearable. ;) I ran the first two laps of the beach pretty good but was really feeling the heat. It's amazing how the first really hot day of the season knocks you about. I ran with my water bottle and found that I was drinking almost constantly and fighting a terrible dry mouth. After about 20 minutes my calves were staring to tighten up as were those muscles either side of the shin (don't know what they're called). I pushed on determine to make the half hour point but concede that the last 5 minutes or so was really hell. I ran shirtless and in the speedos (yes, lucky for everyone it was dark) which allowed me to dump my bum bag after my run and head straight for the waves. My wife isn't happy that I have been taking a dip at night lately and before I left last night she was determined that I would become dinner for some hungry shark. I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I saw the report in the paper about some overgrown fish finger being chased off at Bondi yesterday. It conjures up scenes from JAWS when that woman was swimming nekid at night and the shark took her from below. If you don't recall how the JAWS movie panned out, there is a very funny Flash movie called JAWS in 30 Seconds which is well worth a look. Just click on the image to view. I will head down to the beach again on Friday after work for another run. It seems that I have to defer any run with shoes and stay barefoot on the sand until my festy big toe settles down. I'm thinking this could take up to a week. Mood: --->

After browsing the 2006 running calendar, I came up with a to-do list. This year due to injury I missed out on far too many races. I managed to run only 4 out of the 10 Sydney Striders 10km Series and sadly missed out on the most important race - the City to Surf. Fingers crossed that I have a better year injury wise. I have four goal races for 2006 - Nail Can Hill @ Albury, Bondi Barefoot (soft sand) 10km, City to Surf and Central Coast Half Marathon. I would also like to slowly increase my distances and try the two longer local trail races - Woodford to Glenbrook (25km) and Mt Wilson to Bilpin (35km). If all goes well and I can lose another 5kgs or so, I reckon 2007 will mark my marathon debut. So my 2006 calendar goes something like this: Jan 26 - Medibank Private Oz Day 8km Fun Run Feb 04 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 1 Feb 22 - Sydney Striders Equalizer 14km trail Race. Mar 04 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 2 Apr 02 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 3 May 02 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 4 May 07 - Nail Can Hill 11.4km Trail Race - Albury May 21 - Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon Jun 03 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 5 Jun 11 - Manly Soft Sand Classic 9km Jun 25 - Woodford to Glenbook 25km trail Jul 01 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 6 Jul 09 - Bondi Barefoot Soft Sand 10km Aug 07 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 7 Aug 13 - City to Surf 14km Aug 26 - Mt Wilson to Bilpin 35km trail Sep 02 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 8 Sep 10 - Blackmore's Half Marathon Oct 01 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 9 Oct 08 - Sydney Striders Internal Half Marathon Nov 04 - Sydney Striders 10km Series Race 10 Dec 03 - Central Coast Half Marathon Boy, that looks a lot ! Lets hope that I can maintain my fitness for most of these, especially for my goal races. Mood: --->

I guess a PB doesn't come easy and I can say that I'm sure paying for it right now. Manky big toe: looks like I'm going to lose another toe nail. I saw a thread on CR which said that going up half a shoe size will give you more room in the toe box. Might try that after these new shoes have had their day. Five blisters: I always use vaseline in long runs but forgot to pack it this time around. Doh ! Aching quads: I may need a quad transplant very soon. Very tender to touch. Very sore going up and down stairs. Yes, I know I'm a big girl. I went down to Bondi last night at dusk and walked the entire length on the beach thigh deep. A little bit better today but not sure I can run tonight. The great news is that after 21kms on concrete my shins are fine. Yep - no more inflamation than last week. Very happy about that. I will head down to the beach tonight and attempt a lap or two after dinner. If not I'll just take a dip and cool the quads down again. Mood: --->

Sorry for the crappy pics. I havn't really learn't how to drive this new phone camera as yet. Walking up to the start: Go Girl, Benny, Tiger Angel & sfGnome Chief pacer: Miners (and my finger over lens) Cheer squad Jen_runs and Go Husband (?). Flexiboy in background. More CRs plus Kaz and Miss Skarmel Plu interviewing Two Pennys Photos on the run. I ran ahead, stopped and took the pic. On the run again. And again. At the 19th hole.

1:48:09 PB | 21.1km | Race Today was a surprise result after a disjointed few months since the Blackmores Half. From September I have been up and down with injury and unable to make many long runs at all. I managed to put it together for the Striders Half in October but then was plagued by shin splints thereafter. So today's 4:10 PB was with great satisfaction. The satisfaction for me was not that I made a PB, but more so that I could put a 21km run together at a decent pace. The PB is nice, but the course today is as flat as a pancake and compared to my 1:52 at Lane Cove - I think that they are on a par. I stayed at my Dads at Umina on Saturday night and left there at 5.30am for the drive up to The Entrance. Before the race I met up with a host of CoolRunners and CoolBloggers and was happy to finally meet Go-Girl, Two Pennys & Kaz. Plu was also there recording his Podcasts and we managed to chat right at the gun. I will post the link for that once it goes on-line. We look off on the 1:50 Minertrain which was paced by Miner also co-paced by Miss Skarmel. On the train was BennyR, Go-Girl, Tiger Angel, sfGnome, Plu and Two Pennys. We ran together for the first 10kms in a group and chatted all the way. It was a great way to get through the first stanza without having to think too much about pace or the fatigue that usually comes with it. At about the turnaround, Tiger Angel and sfGnome had dropped back (as they were only ever to treat the race as a long run only) as did Plu and Benny. Poor Benny's petrol tank let him down today - but I'm sure there will be plenty of good runs in the guy in the very near future. Chin up Benny ! I felt pretty good at that stage and was comfortable at stepping up the pace a tad and was joined by the pace princess Miss Skarmel. One thing that she brought to the table was a constant rhythm. That together with the pleasant chat got me through the next 8/9kms without any real worries. The last two kms was pretty tough and I started to feel a bit light headed and the lungs started to burn. I don't have my splits but I'm sure that we upped the pace to bring it home as we passed about a dozen runners in the last 10 mins. If Miss S blogs her splits, I'll pinch them and put them up here. After the race we had a few quiet drinks at the pub which was a nice way of winding down. Also nice to meet CR Royworlds who picked up a first in age group gong for the half. Mood: --->

30:00 | soft sand Bondi was a little eerie last night. The 100% humidity, the still warm night and the calm ocean brought in a sea fog which covered the beach and reduced visibility down to about 25m. The beach and boardwalk were deserted. All the tourists and local runners/walkers were missing in action. Even the usual flock of seagulls (hated that band by the way) that spend the night on the sand chose to sleep elsewhere. I wonder if it was the sea fog or perhaps the ghostly figure patrolling the waters edge that scared them off ? It sure didn't stop this brave chap, I just went on with my business unperturbed - except when a labrador came from nowhere and jumped on me from behind ! Arrgh ! It scared the living daylights out of me ! Apart from that little scene, I had a good workout. The sand was particularly churned up after a busy day which made it hard going. On days like that you almost have to wade through the uneven sand ankle deep which is quite taxing, compared to the post rain compacted sand of the other night. The inflammation on my left shin is reduced but still there. Realistically, I'm expecting that the 1/2M on Sunday will flair things up and probably set me back a few weeks. I'm OK with that and hope that I can get through the race without too many dramas. Why am I racing if I'm not 100% ? To explain, this race marks my first anniversary as a CoolRunner. Last year, (I ran the 9km) I donned my blue and yellow cap for the first time and turned up at The Entrance park quite unprepared for the warm greetings I received. I recall Plu, Bluedog and Omni in particular roped me in and immediately included me in the CR family. So this race and the C2S (which was my first ever race) hold a sentimental place on my calendar. Unfortunately I missed the C2S this year, so wild horses will not keep me from being at The Entrance on Sunday. Mood: --->