Week 12 of 18 10km | easy Twas a foggy night tonight down in the moors. The 1000% humidity brought the sea fog in down at the beach. Along the boardwalk visibility was down to 25m as I dashed (?) through the meandering tourists. The calf is pretty good, with only a few little complaints at the start. Mood: --->

2.5km | Easy After the rain had cleared, Jackson & I headed out for his Sunday training run. The same route as last week across the road in Centennial except today was "car free day". Centennial is a great place to run, but is even better when the big iron gates are left bolted for the day. It's a shame that it only happens every 3 months. Jackson's endurance certainly has improved over the last month and he churned through the run quite easily this time around. So much so that after his sprint finish to end the 2.2km loop, he volunteered to continue the run to home. That's my boy ! 5.5km | Easy After I dropped Jackson off at home, I ran back into the park for a lap of the walking path with a detour up to Woollahra Gates, then around past the Moonlight Cinema and down to York Street Gates. I ran easier today now that my flu is another day older, but i was breathing pretty heavily at the top of the big hill. The calf is sweet. I felt only the tiniest of pings in the last km or so this afternoon. Pretty much no more than a brief pin prick of pain. After 8kms yesterday and another 8km today, hopefully I'm in the clear now. I think I'll do 6kms on Tuesday and then maybe 12km on Thursday. That will leave me with a 19km run on the weekend as per Uncle Hal's program in a conveniently quiet week. Mood: --->

Week 11 of 18 8km | easy I woke up this morning feeling ugly. The kids had graciously passed on their snotty nose bug on to me. Had a head cold. Felt like crap. Ran an inside lap of the horse track and another of the walking path at Centennial. Added a tad more to round off 8km. Ran ugly. Felt ugly. Glad it's over frankly. Calf is fine. Mood: --->

Week 11 of 18 6km | easy Uncle Hal and I haven't been on speaking terms of late. His programs don't tolerate injuries. Last night I jumped back on board with the prescribed 6km run. The pace last night was up from Tuesday, but still at an amble. So slow in fact that as I passed the Japanese Restaurant in Oxford Street a couple finished their entrees and mains then paid for their bill all in the time that I was passing the shop window. I had no pain in the calf by the way. None. Zero. Happy days. Mood: --->

Week 11 of 18 30 mins | Super slow I've had a pretty good few days legs wise. The calf has been in cotton wool (well ice actually) for most of the time and I'm getting a pretty good stretch out of it now. Last night I headed out for a super slow run around Bondi Junction. Old ladies with walking frames passed me with ease as I edged my way up York Road. I was running with maximum caution - waiting for a ping in the calf. Nothing. All good. As I passed through the shopping mall at snails pace, I was wishing I had wore my "Tore my soleus 9 days ago" t-shirt to explain my pathetic pedestrian shuffle. I arrived home after half an hour in good shape. Stretched and iced etc. The fireworks at 8.40pm were no doubt for me. Thanks to whoever organized that. Mood: --->

After another successful 20 mins in the soft sand for me on Sunday morning, I took Jackson out in the afternoon for a light jog to continue our preparation for his first fun run. I hadn't mapped out a route so decided to do a half lap of Centennial Park which should have been about 2km. We ran slowly (slower than usual because of Dad's old legs) and talked all the way about what he could expect on the day of the race. There was a little hill from the lily ponds up to the Cafe and he found it hard going. To his credit (and with a little encouragement from me) he chugged up the hill pretty good. I think he was relieved to find out that Dad finds hills a grind too, and that I also get those little voices in my head telling me to stop and have a rest. We finished our loop and Jackson even sprinted the last 100m for a Hollywood finish. When we got home I mapped the run to find that we had run 2.2kms which was over the 2.195kms race distance ! That's a huge achievement for him and he was pretty chuffed that he's made the grade so early on. He even then said that he could run another 2kms after dinner ! Ah, those endorphines must give kids short term run memory too. Not much earlier he was complaining big time mid run that he tired. ;-) My calf ? Sweet. I didn't get a single ping the whole way and am almost doing full bent knee eccentric let downs on it now. Will probably do a slow 5km on Tuesday to test it further. Will consult with Larry the Physio first. Nothing stupid etc. Mood: --->

Week 10 of 18 Soft sand | 20 mins I felt good enough in the pins this morning to try a quick (er, quick in time, slow in pace) run on the sand. Dawn at Bondi this morning was pretty special as you can see by the pic and there were quite a few punters were out taking advantage of the early day. My calf felt tight and did ping a few times, but nothing to worry about. It felt tight more than anything. At the end of each lap I stopped and stretched. It losened up a little each time. Might do the same run Sunday morning and then attempt a jog on the road in the afternoon with Jackson for 15 mins for more of his Kids Marathon training. Mood: --->

Week 10 of 18 I had a team meeting with Larry the Physio this morning and his call on the "pop" in my calf was a partial tear in the soleus. Never knew I had a soleus. Good to know. Probably some old scar tissue that gave way it seems. At least it's not in the achilles, so that's good news. With much ice over the past 72 hours I can report that I'm walking and (almost) without a limp. I can do a straight leg calf stretch no worries, but it's the bent leg calf stretch that's a killer. Larry wasn't too worried about me not making Canberra and we talked about a plan to get me back running and then amending my program to get me to the start with sufficient base so that I can enjoy the day. This week I will be doing a little walking and sessions on the static bike to keep my fitness up. Lots of anti-inflams, ice and calf let downs will be on the menu as well. Hopefully I will have enough mobility by Friday to have a run on the soft sand. Fingers crossed anyway. Mood: --->

Week 9 of 18 I've been looking after the achilles since Thursday. TLC included ice, anti-inflams, and gentle stretching. Yesterday and this morning it felt great, with just a little tightness left. I did 30 mins on the bike yesterday and felt fine all the way. I planned to run gently around the park on the grass and ease my way into it and see how I go. I left home at a very very slow pace and got 200m before I felt a "pop" in the achilles followed by a tight pain. Somewhere at the top of the achilles where it joins the calf. I don't know what it means but I concede that I have the feeling that it's bad. I have often pulled up tender here and there, but never had anything snap on me mid-run before. Mood: --->

Week 9 of 18 6km | Easy A rare three-nights-in-a-row run was happening last night. Uncle Hal had me down for 6kms and I readied myself for a trip around the block. I was running free and easy for the first few KMs, and scooted through Bondi Junction mall like Buster on a good day. In fact I was traveling so well that my thoughts turned to the Striders 14km The Equaliser trail race on Sunday. By the time I got to Bondi Road, I decided that I would go on Sunday as I ran a soft time last year and I was feeling good enough to make amends. Now I'm just going to have to learn never to underestimate my ability to get on top of one niggle and to find a brand new one to keep me on my toes. Alas, by the time I arrived at Queens Park my right achilles got a cramp and virtually stopped me in my tracks. It's not the achilles thing from Xmas, that one was on my left leg. So a whole new one has manifested - just to piss me off ! So I hobbled (jogged with a limp) home and did the usual ice thing etc etc. This morning it feels stiff and just in need of a few days of good stretching methinks. I'm confident that there are no tears or bad strains in there. I'm guessing that this puts me out of Striders though. Oh well, I was only doing it for like 5 minutes. LOL. An easy run in the park might have to do instead. Mood: --->

Week 9 of 18 11km | Easy The dreaded midweek long run devised by the evil Uncle Hal had me running 11kms last night. Up 1km from last week. In my bid to avoid a hilly route (hills seems to aggravate the ribs), I headed into the city and back. I'm beginning to hate Wednesdays. After 12 hours driving a desk, eating dinner then reading stories to the kids etc - running an hour plus at 8.30/9.00pm shits me to tears. Still, I used it to my advantage last night and reminded myself that I will no doubt be feeling the same heavy legs 35kms into Canberra. I guess it's my way of turning a negative into a positive. Whilst it's a relatively flat run into the city, it does take it's toll on the legs as the granite type paving which has been laid from Woollahra all the way into and around the City is very very hard. So much so that I had to stop and stretch a few bits on the way back at Taylor Square. On the ribs front, I think I tore (re-tore) some of it as I had a terrible nights sleep and was turning in bed like a 100 year old man. I couldn't sit up to get out of bed this morning without sharp pain, so I had to roll out onto the floor LOL. I popped a few voltarens after breakie and I'm feeling OK now. I get the feeling that this rib thing will be around for another good month, with both good days and bad. Hopefully it will be all healed by April though ! I also used last night as a test drive for my Camelback which I will need soon now that my longruns will be edging over the 25km mark . I've had one for over 2 years and never used it. I bought it on sale at Clarence Street Cycles for a stupidly cheap price as an impulse buy. It's not a Camelback really. Rather it's a Trek brand which no doubt is a Daewoo in Hydration Backpack Land. I rinsed it first after sterilising with Milton tabs (I picked that tip up from a CR thread) and then filled it will cool water from the fridge. It felt comfortable except for the confounded sloshing noise, which drove me batty ! Also the mouthpiece hurt the roof of my mouth a bit whenever I would take a drink. I guess you get used to all that after a while. Mood: --->

Week 9 of 18 5km | Easy I decided to be pro-active with this torn rib cartilage thing and saw my acupuncture lady Teresa on Monday for some of her handy needlework. "You wery clumsy boy !" was all she could say. Too true. As at this morning I'm feeling pretty good, so I guess it's improved about 25% since the weekend. I did sneeze this morning though and it hurt like a .22 calibre thud to the chest. Yeowch ! On the running front, I ran 5km on the Uncle Hal program last night. The "stitch" feeling in the ribs was still there, except it hurt on the inhale only this time around. So that's an improvement. It was a typical Tuesday run - no energy and equal motivation. Oh well, it's in the bank and that's all that matters. Tonight is 11km. Now that's going to be hard methinks. Yawn. Mood: --->

Week 8 of 18 21km | Easy I had 21kms on Uncle Hal's program this morning and following Flash Duck's advice, I elected to just run laps of Centennial Park. This would enable me to bail out and head home should my ribs give me too much trouble. I had a good day yesterday with the ribs giving me only a little pain here and there. I woke this morning however very uncomfortable. I put this down to taking an anti-inflam before bed last night. Whilst this enabled me to have a good nights sleep, it probably allowed me to sleep in positions that I shouldn't have - so in turn it i guess it aggravated the injury. Anyway, I was determined to give a long run a go after a successful 15 min run on Friday night and a trot with Jackson last night. So the plan was 6 laps of the walking path (about 3.6kms) and to call it quits if the pain gets to much. I started pretty slow and ran a conservative pace for most of the way. I bumped into tri-girl Ellie80 after about 45mins who was making her way down for a run with the girls. I said to Ellie that it felt like I was running with a stitch - and that was pretty much how it remained for the rest of the run. I ended up completing the 6 laps in a slow 2:09:03 and was sweating like I'd just spent 2 hours in a sauna. As CoolBlogger Fem_Physique said the other day in a comment on my blog - no pain, no gain. Now aren't her achievements an inspiration for head-down-bum-up hard work ! Yikes ! Hopefully I'll be able to resume my full program this week with little disruption. Mood: --->

Week 3 of Jackson's Fun Run training sent us a tad longer with 1.8kms in the bank this time around. He did a good job considering we had an active day, with the first half spent at the park playing and riding bikes with the rest of the day at Bronte Beach.

Week 8 of 18 OK, so I took myself to the doctor. X-rays showed no fracture and the Doctor diagnosed possible cartilage trauma. Der. He prescribed anti-inflams and advised me to exercise only to the point of pain onset. I have trolled the CoolRunning and InjuryUpdate forums and concluded that running is one of the few exercises that I can actually be doing that probably won't aggravate the injury. Obviously rowers, swimmers and players of ball sports would have a tough time. But it WILL hurt. It's just a matter of how much. "Let pain be your guide" is what CR Dr JH said as he reported training for a major race with 5 broken ribs a few years ago. So I will step up with the anti-inflams, increase my fish oil intake and start with the Glucosamine. I plan to go for a run on Friday for a couple of easy Kms with no vigorous arm actions (ie; flat track - no hills) just to see what happens. If I pull up no worse for wear then I plan to run my 21kms on Sunday as per Uncle Hal's program. If that doesn't work - well I'll worry about that next week. Mood: --->