5km | grass Things have been slow going on the injury front. Mucho ice and self massage has improved things to a certain extent, but I'm way off 100%. I ventured out yesterday for a test spin around the flat bits of Queens Park. The pesky calf felt tight and certainly not healed. A scoot across Elizabeth Street at lunchtime today proved that. Ouch! I'm thinking that it may be another week or maybe two before I can go for a serious run. Grrr. In other news spinning is no substitute for running and I am getting fatter and fatter by the day ! It's as if my metabolism is in reverse compared to a few months ago. Then I was losing weight by the truck load. Now I'm putting it all back on ! I may have to start walking home from the city or at least Edgecliff Station to ward off the spare tire. Either that or ask Santa for some liposuction. Mood: --->

I saw Larry the Physio yesterday regarding the pesky calf. Larry is the sort of practitioner who just won't just give my calf a rub and send me on my way. As he says, anyone can do that. He prefers to find out why the calf injury occurred in the first place then treat the cause. Otherwise I will more than likely be chasing my tail with injuries infinitum. After taking some pics of me from various angles and popping them into a trendy software program, Larry determined that the cause of my calf injury was the position of my hips and spine. Basically my hips are tilted upwards (or was that downwards?) and my spine has a slight twist to the right. So they need realignment. Larry uses the Egoscue Method and has provided me with a whole bunch of exercises designed to reposition my hips and spine. Currently my running posture has me favouring my right hand side it seems. So nightly I will be doing exercises like the Standing Windmill, Standing Arm Circles, Airbench, Downward Dog amongst others. <--- I challenge anyone to do the Airbench for 2 minutes. Damn hard work if you ask me ! As for the pesky calf. Larry worked on breaking down the scar tissue and said that with continued self massage and ice, it will be fine in a few days. Running will be my call depending on how I feel over the next day or two. I might just continue to spin into the weekend and give it a test on the grass maybe on Sunday. Frankly I'm in no hurry and sort of enjoying a little holiday from running. Hopefully the spinning will stop me from putting on weight ! Mood: --->

21.1km | Race | DNF It was a disruptive night with a power line down in the street and sparks flying everywhere. Then the blackout that followed meant that I couldn't have my usual pre-race shot of coffee and toast (!). Grrr, not a good start. I arrived at Lane Cove a little early and found Kit and Ellie setting up munchies and chatted to CRs Plu, Wriggler, Lastish, Gnome, FTP and Johnny Dark until our start time ticked over. The pesky calf was feeling OK last night but admittedly I did need to give it the usual attention with a massage and then ice . Still I gave it a test this morning and it felt pretty much like it has for the last few weeks - not painful, just that "pulling" feeling deep in the upper calf. JD and I set off by our Pat Malone at the 6:51am allotted start time and we headed up the hill for the first lap. We made good progress for the first bunch of Ks and were on target for our 1:39 handicap. It was at about the 7km mark that my pesky calf started to tighten and remind me that I still have a problem that won't go away without either time off, intense treatment or both. From there it was when things started to get a little bothersome and the tightness began to effect the efficiency of my stride. I said to JD that things were a bit crook and that I was going to bail out at 10km or there abouts. We hit the 10km marker at 46:35 which was right on the money for the handicap and I pulled up from there. JD was looking his usual solid self and I am sure that he would have finished on or about the goal time. I am not all that disappointed on the DNF as I did manage a 10km run which was way faster than I would normally train. So I'm OK with what happened. Now to the pesky calf. I will take the week off from running and concentrate on massage and ice with spinning to keep fit. I'll also spend some time with Larry the Physio for some of his magic. Let's see if that helps. Mood: --->

10km | easy I didn't get out the door last night until well after 9.00pm. Child & wife wrangling meant that my plans of a longer run had to be quashed. So a shortish run down to the beach and back was all I could squeeze in. It was perfect running temperature and I felt good heading down to Bondi and just as good grinding my way back up Bondi Road. Having said that my pesky calf was still talking to me. A gentle reminder that the problem has not been solved. So whatever I am doing (massage, ice, stretching and Larry the Physio's exercises) is keeping me running but not dealing with the cause. Similarly my ITB is sore in the side of my left thigh as it has been off and on for months. Now that I have committed myself to run Canberra I will need to get to the bottom of this rubbish that has plagued me since mid year. Maybe taking a week or two or three off after the Central Coast 1/2M might be the go. Anywho, I will be running the Striders Internal 1/2M at Lane Cove on Sunday morning with a 1:39 carrot (Striders handicap) to aim at. That's just two sub 50 10km strung together isn't it ? Er, easy. Eeek ! Mood: --->

I received an email yesterday from my life long friend in Albury, CoolRunner Ripley. I've known Ripley since I was 7 or 8. We went through Primary and High School together. Ripley is one of those friends that will be sitting on my porch when I'm 70 sharing a beer with me talking about old times. Ripley has asked me to run Canberra Marathon with him next year. He is looking for a new challenge for 2007 after running a few half marathons this year and last. My initial reaction was not concern about the distance, but ending up with some nasty injury because of the increased mileage or from the actual run itself. I'm probably just being paranoid and will get to the bottom of my niggles by years end - I hope. So putting those injury concerns aside, I couldn't think of a better way of making my marathon debut but next to great mate making his maiden run as well. So that's it. I'm going to Canberra next April. Ripley runs a 1/2M in just under 2 hours so I figure that we'll be in somewhere around 4 to 4 1/2 hour shape come April. Ripley reckons that he will be packing cab fare next to his gel in case of an emergency, but we wont need that. I will drag him through as he will me. Whatever happens we will finish together. Mood: --->

Sunday 15th October, 2006 7km | easy | grass/trail I was feeling surprisingly good this morning and headed out for a quick lap of the outside fence run of Centennial before breakfast and the first Nippers of the season. Whats with the weather ? 25 degrees and 6.00am on Saturday and only 12 degrees at the same time today !! Anyway, I ran it at HM pace and felt pretty strong all the way. A few days ago I was 50/50 to run the Striders Internal 1/2M next Sunday. But now I'm thinking that I might just do it anyway. Not sure about the 1:39:00 handicap, but we'll give it a shot I guess. I must say that two laps of Lane Cove is not a real pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning. Lets hope that its not a hot one. Saturday 14th October, 2006 17km | easy | grass/trail I headed out the door at 5.30am and did a lap of the outside fence of Centennial Park and Queens Park with a bit of Moore Park thrown in (10kms) and then another of the Cenntennial lap (7kms) to finish off the run. I've have been spending the last few days icing, massaging and stretching my numerous niggles and have come out the other end OK. I did it quite slow but managed to get through without the niggles really complaining too much. Jumped in the car after the run and immersed myself in the Boggie Hole at Bronte beach for a nice cool down. Verrrry hot out there. Mood: --->

5km | Easy My niggles are too many to list at the moment. Must be that time of the month or year or something. My theory last night was that they are a product of my lazy stretching regime. So I forced myself out of the house niggles and all and ploughed though a staggeringly slow 5kms. By the end the aches felt better than at the start and I spent a good 20 mins stretching whilst I was warm. Not surprisingly I am feeling sort of OK today (rolls eyes, when will he learn etc). The pic above is secret* location on the South Coast were we spent much of last Sunday until the weather turned ugly. Its a 8km drive on a dirt road through an unpronounceable National Park. The kids had a blast getting close to nature. Very cool feeding the native birds (your not allowed to feed the Roos). The Roos seem pretty happy with the odd human being about as long as you don't get too close. Apparently if you stay until dusk you can get up to 80 in the mob. I did attempt to communicate with a few using the techniques picked up over the years watching Skippy. Alas, no amount of tch tch tch worked. I even threw in the odd C'mon Skip ! My son told me that I should know how to whistle with a gum leaf. That must have been my downfall. ;-) * ok, ok its Pebbly Beach. Just don't tell anyone ! Mood: --->

70 mins | Easy After a quick shower on Saturday, we drove down the coast to Ulladulla for a few days of R&R. The Striders run was the first run on a hard surface for two weeks and the DOMS sure ensured that I didn't forget that fact. This morning I left our accommodation near the northern end of Ulladulla Harbour and ran Mollymook's rolling hills up to the northern headland called Bannisters Point. My legs were pretty trashed with my pesky calf doing its best to piss me off for the first few KMs. Soon the calf started to behave itself and handed the job to the quads and left ITB who all complained for the rest of the morning's run. The beautiful scenery more than made up for the crappy legs that's for sure, with a dip in the coolish surf a nice wake-up call ! Mood: --->

10km | 44:46 | Race | Course PB I woke feeling pretty average on Saturday morning, which was pretty normal for a race day. Sleep never seems to come easy on race eve and this week was no exception. Still, by the time I got to Homebush I was OK and ready to give the twisty course a shake. As usual, my plan was to try and get in front of the 45 min pacer and (hopefully) draw away from him and post a decent time. Yes I went out too hard again, but at 5km I was trundling along at a decent clip and feeling OK. Then the wheels fell off. I ran out of petrol. My splits were as follows:- 4:04 1km 4:15 2km 4:12 3km 4:21 4km 4:24 5km 21:18 4:26 6km 4:42 7km 4:42 8km 4:54 9km 4:41 10km 44:46 OK it was a course PB, but I basically ran pretty crap and I just need to get fitter. I really felt ordinary for the last 4/5km and my splits reflect that. Blah. Mood: --->

5km | soft sand I headed down to Bondi last night for more of the same. The afternoon winds had calmed and left the beach quiet and desserted except for the usual Japanese school children playing on the beach. Nice little excursion to OZ. In my day we were lucky to go to the Zoo. I ran in the long skins and felt pretty strong all the way. No I didnt see a whale but I'm sure there was one about somewhere. Lets call it Blogger Licence. Mood: --->