We apologize for this break in transmission. Normal services will resume when my achilles decides to behave itself. EDIT: To answer the question by Anonymous (Who was that masked man ?) about the music, it's an acid jazz French DJ dude called Saint Germain. The track is So Flute off the album Tourist. Mood: --->

5km | easy Week 1 of 18 Tuesday was actually the start of my new training schedule and I missed it ! We had to go to my son's School for a Xmas thing, so last night had to do. Hal said: "5km - An easy day. Run at a comfortable pace." Yeah did that. On the niggle front, my left archilles is playing up again. I've been stretching and doing the usual eccentric calf letdowns as well as icing after a run, but frankly it feels really dodgy this morning. I will monitor it over the next few days and start on a course of anti-inflams as well. Happy to take some time off if need be to let it settle down. I'd rather take time off now rather than in a months time when I need to be clocking some solid miles. Mood: --->

Here is my marathon schedule for the next few months. I'm just using the Hal Higdon "novice" program that so many virgin runners seem to use. I've seen many others but they involve one or two night speed work which I don't think my old legs would put up with quite frankly. On the weeks that appear to be recovery (ie, those which the Saturday LSD drops in mileage) I intend to run on grass or trail all week - starting this week. Mood: --->

17.3km | LSD | 87:00 107:00 (!) I did nothing this week. Zip, zero, zilch. Why ? Well just because. So this morning I thought it best to turn the legs over and on the spur of the moment decided to run Heartbreak Hill to Bondi and return. Needless to say that there were some mighty undulations in the run this morning. The legs felt a bit flat but the body held up OK. I ran the course in reasonable time and arrived home hot but only a little puffed. Happy with that. EDIT: Oops. Just realised that my time was 107, rather than 87. LOL Mood: --->

. *Warning: nonsensical ramble ahead. Just doing this for my own record. Best you move on otherwise you'll just get bored.* Now that the racing season is over, it's time for me to sit back and reflect on the year just past. Willie Jolley (who is nobody really significant as far as I can find out) once said "A setback is a setup for a comeback." This pretty much sums up the way I have been feeling of late. Rather than saying "one step forward, two steps back" I prefer to motivate myself by saying to myself "one step back, two steps forward". After most of 2005 was dominated by shin splints, I spent the entire summer off season running the soft sand of Bondi Beach and occasionally the grass of Centennial Park. My comeback to the road in early January was a failure with a flair up of the shins again. I think I Blogged at the time that I was going to take up golf LOL. Anyway, this meant that my transition from the months of soft surfaces to the road was going to be a slow one. So I walked/ran on the road for a few weeks and spun to keep fit. By the time the Australia Day Medibank Private race arrived I was pretty much over the shins splint problems and ready to race. To my surprise I ran the fastest I have ever run to date (4:33/km). It was also on that day that Don Juan reminded me (he first told me at the 2005 CR Drinks) that the only way to get faster was to lose the weight. So at 86 kgs I resolved to shed the flab. Thanks sincerely for that DJ. Today I'm 77kg (up from 75kg at C2S "eek") and can best summarize my racing year as follows:-

• 10 outright PBs
• 1 EB
• 4 course PBs
• Dropped my 10km PB by 3 mins from 45:57 to 42:56
• Dropped my 1/2M PB by 12 mins from 108:09 to 96:57
• Dropped my Nail Can Hill PB by 8 mins from 64:11 to 56:56
• Dropped my 2004 C2S PB by 30 mins from 94:11 to 64:31
• Increased my yearly mileage from 1051 in 2005 to about 1300 by end 2006

Needless to say I'm more than satisfied with my running this year as I have achieved so much even though my year was constantly interrupted by little injuries. I might winge a bit about injuries, but thankfully I have never really been hit by a biggie like a stress fracture or ITB Syndrome on the knees etc which seem to plague many new runners. This year I have had ITB, calf, quad, glute and achilles dramas, but I have been able to manage these niggles (thank God our fridge has an ice maker LOL) and still keep fit. Most importantly I have been able to run through most of these niggles as my body has grown and adapted to this new thing called running. A lot of credit must go to my Physiotherapist CoolRunner PhysioLarry. He knows his stuff, that's for sure. Highlights of the year have been numerous, but I always enjoy running Nail Can Hill down at Albury with my mate & part time CoolRunner Ripley. I love trail running and the challenge of "the hill" down there was awsome. I aim to expand my trail running to Woodford to Glenbrook (W2G) and Mt Wilson to Bilpin (W2B) in 2007. Another highlight must be the CoolRunning Community. How amazing is it to run regularly with so many friendly like minded people. I'm sure I would be sitting on the lounge doing my best Homer Simpson impression without CoolRunning ! Speaking of 2007, next year will mark my full marathon debut. As I have blogged previously, Ripley asked me a few months ago to run Canberra with him. Until then I was determined not to run a marathon until after I had run the W2G/W2B double - but to run my first marathon with a great mate also on debut, was just too great an opportunity to pass on. So now I'm embarking on my marathon training for Canberra in April in 2007 and can't wait to tell the truth. 2007 may not bring me the pile of PBs as it did this year, but I think that it will be even more exciting than 2006. Bring it on I say. Mood: --->

Miners requested that I post them here, so here goes !

. 2006 Central Coast Half Marathon 21.1km | 96:57 PB | Race I always look forward to this race. This and the C2S are my all time favs for the year. Not only do I get to spend some more quality time with my Dad who lives in Umina, but I also get to run a great local race which is always frequented by a multitude of CoolRunners and Striders. Whilst the weather was windy, cold and raining a whole bunch of people turned up this morning and it was great to see so many friendly faces. I said in my last blog entry that I had strained my left archilles last weekend and whilst I got on top of the injury to a certain extent, even yesterday it was worrying me every now and then. Luckily it didn't trouble me for any of the race as we wound our way around the lake and back. JUst a little sore now. It hit the halfway mark at 45:58 and was pretty well placed for a good finish. I popped a gel about then and it got me through the tough 14-17km stage. Plenty of runners were passing me and I think that the back half really showed my lack of fitness in the last 10kms. I think I wrote the same thing after Blackmores. My water soaked shoes made me develop a big blister between my big and second toe and the last bunch of kms were a little painful. Why oh why do I forget to put vaseline between the toes when its raining !?! There were lots of great performances out there with PB's by the majority rather than the usual minority. Well done to everyone ! Mood: --->