Wed, Thurs and Fri

So keeping my promise to myself and to blogging while I have this back injury the last 3 days have been mixed emotions.

Wednesday was a great day training wise. Started off by doing 30min on the stationary bike then 30min on the x-trainer. Back was a little sore after that.
I then saw Stan and had some physio then later I got body balance in. First time in a long time since I've done one of those. I then got to Mingara pool to swim 2km slow

Thursday was a day I had a sleep in. I was going to do a cycle class but couldn't be bothered and thought the extra sleep seemed a better idea.
I had to go to Newcastle to massage the Knights so I stopped off at Kotara fitness first to do some core work before work. Nothing else done today

Friday I woke up with the sore back. Very depressing and was quite annoyed. I just want this thing to go away. Almost 5 weeks now so it's frustrating not being able to do what I love doing and that's the joy and freedom of running out on the trails.
I got to the gym and did 48min on the stationary bike then off to Woyoy pool to swim 2km in about 39min then tonight I got in a cycle class. Back felt better tonight

Need to keep track of this injury

I thought I should blog about this back injury so if I ever get it again I'll be able to come back to this and see how I got through it.

So what have I got? Some stupid ligament issue called my iliolumbar ligament that goes from the transverse process at the L5 and attaches to Iliac crest.

The first sign I had an issue with this ligament was 1 week before it crippled me. I was doing Mt Solitary ultra and about 10km from the finish running down a hill I felt discomfort in my lower back near my spine. It lasted a few km's then going up Kedumba hill for the last 7km it went away and never bothered me again. In fact I forgot all about it and thought all was rosy.
The next sign was the following Saturday when I was doing some massages in Canberra and just had a tight low back.
The next sign was the day it happened. I was out on the GNW with the Terrigal Trotters and after about 6km into a 33km trail run I got that same feeling I had a week earlier at the Mt Solitary race but this time it didn't go away. It didn't really slow me down but I could feel it getting worse. I should have stopped and walked but as we do I ran and paid the price.
From then on it just got worse and worse and when I thought it couldn't get any worse it got worse again!

2 days later I go and see Stan my physio and after ruling out SIJ he thinks it may be my facet Joint.

With the help of another friend Di I go and get a cortisone injection into the L4/L5 and L5/S1 facet joint and after 7 days of no real pain relief I get a 2nd injection this time in my iliolumbar ligament.
The pain level went from a 8/10 down to a 2/10 straight away. It was heaven!

The pain since then had stayed between a 0/10 to a 4/10. I still can't run but I did do 3km in 19min40sec yesterday but even going that slow stirred it up.

So it been like this
Week 1 - PAIN!
Week 2 - PAIN!
Week 3 - 2nd injection and I'm walking with slight discomfort and I tried a cycle class but got sore mid way though
Week 4 - This is where I'm up to now and I did a 3km slow slow slow run yesterday but wasn't too good after and today I've done a cycle class then I had to go to Parramatta to massage the Eels and got there early so walked6km trying to do some 100m jogging but found out I better just stick to the walking. Then later when I got back on the coast about 6pm I went back into the gym and did a leg workout that included lunges, squats, jumping lunges which were all done Bodyweight and also used the assisted chinup machine and got through it all pain free. I did try to run up and down on the spot but that's still painful

So things are on the mend!!

The injured runner!

Injuries come and go. It doesn't matter if you are an elite athlete, a serious athlete or a weekend warrior. Sometime in our lives we all get injuries. Some people struggle with chronic injuries and some acute. Some people get recurring injuries every few yrs or so while other people get totally new ones.

For myself since I started running in 1999 I've had a lot and I've learnt a lot about how to win the battle against them not only physically but also mentally. Half the battle is the mental one!

The first injury I can remember getting was an achilles issue sometime in 1999. It put me out of action for about 4 or 5wks. I had no clue what to do. I didn't even have the internet back then so it was looking through old runners world magazines to see what this pain was. I was reading stuff about surgery and was freaking out! I was also stressing out that I couldn't run. I hated it! Then after about a month I was back out pounding the pavement again. I've had achilles issues twice since then. Once in 2009 after running hard out at Palmdale which took about 2 weeks to heal and I had issues with it again late last yr but with that one I had no pain just a puffy achilles so I took 4 weeks off to let it settle.

I've have the dreaded ITB. First time was back in 2000 when I was training for my first marathon which is now called the Blackmores marathon. I had no idea what this sharp stabbing pain in my knee was. All I knew was after about 20min of running it HURT! I remember thinking I had a knee injury and thought I was going to need knee surgery or something stupid like that. That one lasted about 6 weeks then came good only to haunt me again in 2009 when it came on all of a sudden running stairs in Bouddi National Park. The second time around I was out of action for 2 weeks then I back into it again.

I've had a strained quad and calf that's put me out of running for about a week

I've done cartilage damage to my ribs falling between two rocks after surfing and I was out of running action for 3 weeks and couldn't lie on my stomach for 9 months

I've dislocated my right shoulder about 8 times since I was 16yrs old and the last time was 5yrs ago ocean swimming out at Terrigal. That put me out of running for 2 weeks.

In 2010 I suffered with High hamstring tendinopathy and got it again in 2012

In 2011 I had a very nasty groin injury on both legs. That was awful and I couldn't run for 5 months between January and May.

In June 2011 I pinched a nerve in my L5-S1 and that was absolutely painful!!! Took 8 weeks to settle

Then last yr in 2013 I got my very first stress fracture in my right fibula but other than running I had no pain at all.

And now in 2014 I got a stress reaction in my tibia after doing C2K a 240km race which took 6 weeks to heal but this one only hurt if I pushed on the bone

Other things I've had peroneus brevis tendon pain in my foot which took 2 weeks to heal.

Had a sore knee for 1 week after running Narrabeen Allnighter race for 12hrs on concrete turning at a witches cone every 1 mile

Got a sore foot that put me out of action for about 2 weeks...No idea what that one was

Had morton's neuroma once which felt like I had a stone in my foot. That went away in about 3 weeks but didn't stop me running.

And right now I've pulled my iliolumbar ligament in my back.

So in 15yrs of running I've had a few injuries and I know if I let those injuries heal they will get better. Most get better in 2-4wks. Some are a little more stubborn though

Believe it or not I don't actually mind if I get an injury because if I never got an injury I'd just keep training hard all yr round without a break and I believe I would burn out.

Things I've learnt from injuries is never train through them. Just about all my injuries have just come on without much warning. My stress fracture last yr I had plenty of warning but ignored it but the rest came without much warning. The warning signs are probably there but I didn't recognise them.

I've done 2 ocean swim races that I loved that if it wasn't for running injuries I would never had done

I've learnt to enjoy swimming, bike riding and general cross training more. I've learnt that I enjoy running and training more than competing. That's why if I get injured I swim, and ride lot's and if I can't do a race then so be it.
I did get a little pissed that I got injured 2 weeks out from TNF100km race this yr though but at the end of the day I've done 3 ultras already this yr.

I've learnt that resting with an injury is a chance for me to recover and let my body heal.


So when my back gets better and if my injury history is anything to go by I should be back in 2 or 3 weeks I will then get back into it again train like a demon for 6-12 months until I get another niggle then take a few weeks off for recovery then train like a demon again which at the end of the day suits me fine :-)

TNF100 from a crewing perspective

TNF100 from a crewing perspective

So what do I do when I can’t race?  I do the next best thing and help another runner in their quest to run 100km.

2 weeks before TNF100 I was doing a training run with the Terrigal Trotters on the GNW and somewhere on that run I hurt my back and I hurt it bad! I was waiting until the morning of the race before I gave in and decided to live to fight another day. So with no race to run had being there I thought I might as well help Greg Brown out the best I could.

I had my Mum up with me as she was going to crew for me if I was able to run so we both followed Greg around the Blue Mtns for the day.

Now it begins I guess at the Start line. We got to the start at Scenic World about 6am and Greg was in wave 4 so he didn’t start until about 6:45ish so when he gave me his pack to hold while he went off to help Marina get a couple of last minute things from the registration area I went for little walk to where I had a better view of things. Maybe I should’ve let Greg know I’d moved from where he left me and with the event getting closer to it’s start time I start to look around for Greg but can’t see him anywhere.
With wave 1 about to start I try calling Greg to see where he was. His phone was turned off! Wave 1 are off and within 3min wave 2 will be getting under away. Greg’s in wave 4 so I take his pack and start to walk around hoping I’ll see him near the start line somewhere. It wasn’t too long and I spot Gary Pickering and he tells me Greg’s just over here and he’s in a panic! Now I know where he is and I’ll have time to give him his pack I tell Gary I’ll let him sweat it out a little longer! I see Greg but he doesn’t see me yet and I see fear and panic in his eye’s so I put him out of his misery and hand him his pack. Relief is now on his face and he has just enough time to take his jumper off put his pack on, get to the start line before he sets off!

Now I won’t have much to do until 47km later at CP3 as we can’t go to the first two CP’s so I hopped on the rail and which took us down the cliff to about the 5.5km mark. By the time I got there I saw Marc Person and Gill Fowler go running by. I walked a few hundred meters on to the single trail and started to take photo’s. A little down from where I was I saw a couple of people trip over then another and a minute or so later I saw another trip over all in the same spot. I walked over to see why everyone was falling on their faces and saw a small rock that getting everyone. After two more fell I started to warn the runners about this rock. I did that until I saw Greg come through then was about to leave. As soon as I walked away another tripped on the rock and fell down the embankment. So I now decided to just stay until the last runner came through and warn the rest.

When they came through I took the train back up to Scenic World, found mum and went off to Katoomba find a bakery.

Next stop – CP3 at Megalong Valley. We got here about 9:30am and I wasn’t too sure what time the leaders would be coming through but thought somewhere between 10:10am and 10:20am. I walked a few hundred meters up the track to take some photos. About 10:15am Stu Gibson came flying by! For the next hour I’m snapping away at the runners and cheering them on. The NSWIB had an esky at the cp so while I wait for Greg to get in I’m quite happy taking in the sunshine drinking beer. I then decided to tease the runners by walking back up the track with a couple of beers and drink them as they ran past me. The drooling from some of them told me they were getting thirsty. A few said “that’s not fair” a few just said “oohhhhh” and some just looked and held their hand out hoping I may give them one. Then out of nowhere Greg comes in. I can’t remember what time it was as I’d had about 5 or so stubbies by now. He had drop bags at this cp and had what he needed in them so all I had to do was see if he needed anything else and make sure he didn’t stay too long. Within a couple of minutes and a couple of photos of him leaving he is gone.

Next Stop – Katoomba to the bottle shop and the supermarket for some food

Next Stop – CP4 at Katoomba aquatic centre. With mum now driving and me drinking this is day is going well! We get the CP4 and I just chat to some 50k runners that had finished. Took photos of some of the 100k runners that I know and also chat to some 100k runners that I don’t know and try to encourage them along. We were here for a couple of hrs and Greg comes in still looking pretty good. I see if there’s anything he needs and tell him to get out of here and get back out there which he does and he’s off again.

Next Stop – CP5 and The old Queen Victoria Hospital at Wentworth Falls. Time to start rugging up as the sun is now starting to go down and the temp is getting cold. This was quite a wait as I knew it would be. We got here around 4:30pm I think and I thought Greg would arrive between 7pm and 8pm so with that I grabbed a few more beers and headed over to where the runners came in and happily cheered them in. They have now run 78km and the smile are vanishing from their faces. They are now shuffling along except for a few who still look rather fresh. I chat here to Allison Lilley for a bit then some other people I’ve never met before.  After drinking my beer I decide it’s time to get some coffee into me and start to warm up.
Around 7:10pm Cathy Duffy comes in and is looking a little lost. I go over and see if she needs anything and she tells me she can’t find her crew. I’m thinking with 9 family members all with blue hoddie on with team Cathy on them how could you miss them but can’t see them anywhere. I give them a call for her and they said they are stuck in traffic and about 2min away. So all good. I help her out and it’s not long later they are there and we get some food and warm clothes on her and send her off. About 10min later Greg comes in and within about 3min he’s off.

Next Stop – Finish at Scenic World. The end is so close now but so far away. It’s taking most runners between 3hrs30mn and 4hrs to do the last section of 22km of stairs, stairs and stairs. So I gather Greg should be in between 11:30pm and 12am. I find a nice warm area to sit and Mum sits down and rests up. We are going to be here a while! I just wait now cheering the finishers on and clapping them on their final 50m. It’s amazing watching them finish. I saw them start and to see them 15hrs, 16hrs 17hrs later still going is quite amazing! Greg came in about 11:50pm in 17hrs6min and a 25min PB! Now we wait for Marina to finish so we can give her a lift home. With mum sleeping on and off  in the chair, Greg relaxing eating hot chips and drinking the cold beer I had waiting for him Marina comes in in a little over 19hrs!

Next Stop – BED! Home by 2:15am, bed by 2:30am

Buffalo Ultra 75km....what a beast!

"The African buffalo is a member of the "Big Five"group of animals, with the elephant, rhino, lion and leopard. Buffaloes have earned a bad reputation from hunters and other people who come in close contact with them. They are unpredictable and can be dangerous if cornered or wounded. Though they have been known to ambush men and are often accused of deliberate savagery, they are usually placid if left alone"

Well that pretty much sums up this course. Especially the bit where it say's "Though they have been known to ambush men and are often accused of deliberate savagery, they are usually placid if left alone"

So with 7 weeks training coming off a stress fracture I decided to give it my best shot and I'm happy to say I survived to tell the tale!

So on a very early Saturday morning down in a small but awesome town in Victoria called Bright we lined up. I guess there were a lot of nervous runners hanging around. I don't think I was nervous but......but......but.......ok I guess I was nervous. 

It wasn't long before we were off and running into the darkness and before I know it we are plodding up the first climb which I didn't find too bad. Mainly because it was a very very easy pace and it was also dark so I could only see as far as my Ayup light would let me. So before too long we were on top of Mystic mtn and soon to make our way down "Mick's Hill" arrrrgghhhhh....ohhhhhhh.....arrrrrghhhh......ohhhhhhhh....... arrrghhhhh!!!!!!!! That's the sound I made sliding on my feet, sliding on my butt, then sliding on my feet, then sliding on my butt down this muddy slippery hill trying not to break my neck then thinking "how many people would line up for hours at Dreamworld for a ride like this?" That hill I think was 800m but however long it was it took a long time to get down. Then I started thinking that I have to climb up that later on then I start thinking I need to stop thinking.

Now once down I get running again checking to see if I had a big hole in my pants which I'm glad to say I didn't.

It wasn't too long before we make our way up "Clearspot"......ohhh Clearspot how I remember you well. This became a walk/run for me and all I thought about was putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward which worked a treat because before I knew it I was up the top then running down down down down down where I managed to twist my ankle. Having rolled my ankle a few times in the past I know if I keep moving it comes good so that's what I did but this time it hurt more than normal. Anyway I kept going trying to block out any pain then changed my running gait to make it a bit more pain free. So down down down I keep going then we head down "Warners Wall" This wall was another crazy down hill but I handled it better than Mystic and before I know it we are on road going through a drink stop. I felt great here and just kept on going. Through a few paddocks and gates we now make our way up Keating Ridge which I really liked and pretty much ran the whole way. It was similar to Pluviometer on the 6ft track then a few km's down hill to the bottom of the "Big Walk" I had a can of coke here and filled up my water and drink bottles then just took my time getting up to the top of Mt Buffalo. 

Now it was a 7km loop to go then run back to the finish....easy! On this 7km loop we got to go caving too which was exciting! Not easy after about 40km of running though. 

Now on the return trip I was still feeling great and once over Keating Ridge and back on the road section I caught up to Tony Williams who seemed to be struggling somewhat and at on off the drink stops he asked if they had any gels. They didn't but I had some as I wasn't even using them so I gave him a couple.  Keeping on moving forward we get back to "Warners Wall" and after a few steps forward I look around and find some sticks on the ground and use them to get myself up this cliff face thing. This is where It hit me and step by step by step I used those sticks to trudge to the top. It was also here that those gels kicked in for Tony as he passed me like I was standing still and the last time I saw him was at the finish line. In fact I most likely was standing still when he passed me. Once up the top it was then slow slow slow walk/run to the top of clearspot. A guy who was in front of me at the time turned around looked at me, pointed to the sky and said Ït just keeps on f**king going! It doesn't f**king stop!" Then with no flat to get the muscles use to running again it was time to go down the other side of Clearspot. This killed my knees. They were sore and I was no longer having much fun. It was now survival. This hill with sore knees and feet and arms and toes was endless but I did get there and with a little bit of runable ground it was time to conquer "Mystic" I grab some sticks the just stuck them into the mud and heaved myself about half a meter then stuck those sticks into the mud again and heaved myself another half a meter and did this over and over and over again sometimes going a meter forward then sliding two meters back and sometimes yelling outloud...."arrrgghhhh C'mon!"sounding like Lleyton Hewitt but I did eventually get to the top. Once there I knew I only had about 4 or 5km to go and mostly downhill. I stood on the top of Mystic for about 1min and thought about what I had just climbed then shook my head and headed to to finish.

I crossed that line in 11hrs34min had Sean put that medal around my neck then found a seat took off my shoes and thought "WOW!

C2K 2013!!!!!!!!!!

Ok let me try and put this race into words….hmmmmm...well I’m going to miss alot but here goes.

Now one thing this is not just a race, it’s an amazing journey into another world. I mean how on earth do you describe in words the feeling you get mentally and physically running/walking 240km from Eden on the Sth Coast of NSW to the highest point in Australia?

I could put this race in to sections such as PRE RACE, THE RACE and POST RACE because each has it's own story but for this I'm going to just talk about "THE RACE"

Amazingly I managed to sleep pretty well waking up about 3:30am to eat some breakfast and do some last minute sorting of my gear. By 4:50am we arrive at the start line and with a nervous wait I try to keep warm. A few photos done of Kevin, Charlie and myself on the start line and the next thing I know we are lined up and off and running!

The first few km's and it's no easy task. Straight on trails and some short sharp steep hills. I just got into a comfortable pace walking those steep hills along with everyone else that I could see.
The first 24km went pretty quick just getting into a nice rhythm I soon catch up to Sarah Richardson then pass her then a little while later she catches up to me and we run into the 24km mark together where we get to meet up with our crews for the first time. I stop here to do some shoe surgery and off I go again.
The next thing I really remember is making my way to the marathon point where I get a cheer from Carol Adams. I got there in 4hrs13min. After that it became a bit of a blur until I got to the first checkpoint at Rocky Hall (50km) I came in there in 5hrs9min (I think)
Feeling pretty good I made my way to Big Jack Mtn at 56.3km in 5hrs50min. It was here Kevin drove to the top while Charlie walked/ran the 7.2km steep hill with me. That 7.2km took 1hr3min to get to the top. I was now back on my own plodding along to checkpoint 2 at Cathcart (70km) 8hrs2min in and 13th place. From here I run with John Pearson and Rick Cooke until my right hip started to give me grief. I put up with it but as the km's went on it was just getting worse and worse. Very frustrating as the rest of my legs felt great. By the time I got to the next checkpoint at 106.7km I was pretty much walking. It was here I got charlie to stick his elbow in my hip and try and release it which helped for a little bit but soon became painful again. At 110km I put some KT tape on the hip and BINGO! I was all good again. Now back into running mode I was catching quite a few other runners and now feeling positive again. It was also around this stage these guys in a ute drove up next to me and said to hop in the back as they could give me a lift! hahaha....one then asked what do you get if you win and I said I'm not too sure but if you finish you get an Akubra. He then said his mate next to him makes Akubra's and he will just give me one!....laughing my head off they wished me well.

Now from 110km to 139km I'm flying along loving it when I decide to have some ice. The next thing I'm cold, then I'm shivering. I said to let me sit in the car with the heater on for a bit and I'll warm up then get back out there. The next thing I know I'm sitting down and I vomit, and vomit and vomit and vomit. I was in the car crook from 9:35pm to 10:58pm. That's a long time going nowhere and being sick. Kevin thought at on stage there I was going to be off to hospital but being a great support crew he stayed positive and poor Charlie had the job of cleaning out my vomit bowl. Finally I decide I've got to get moving and we walk the next 9km to Dalgety checkpoint (148.1km) I stayed here and had a 35min sleep and got my head back into it. I woke up feeling great again and was off into some sort of running.

At 162km Kevin and I started the Beloka climb. All I remember of this was it was STEEP! As we were getting closer to the top the sun was rising and that was just a magic sight!
We were now on our way to Jindabyne and we got there at 8amish or 26hrs30min into the race. I stopped here and had some soup before we started the 40km treck up and up and up to Perisher with a few steep down hills in there too. Being so tired on this climb with being so fatigued I was feeling like I was now drunk and I think Kevin was feeling similar effects we were now just talking shit, laughing at all sorts of things and just having a good time and asking Chalie what's the score in the cricket even though it didn't start for a few hours but hey we had no idea of the day let alone what time it was.  We decided a while ago not too worry about my time as It got blown out the window back when I was throwing up so we were making the best out of this situation.

Somewhere along this section about 5-8k from Perisher we are running down this steep hill and Kevin said his knee was a bit sore and I said my calf is a little sore. We stop to walk then the next thing I know I have this sharp stabbing pain in my left calf. Not long later I couldn't bend my knee so I was now walking the rest of the way to Perisher which took a long time.
We now had a 8-9km climb to Charlottes Pass to get to and we thought we will just relax, walk to the summit and just enjoy being out here as we had plenty of time up our sleeves. About 5km from Charlottes Pass we got a message from another crew that after 4:30pm they weren't allowing any other runners up to the summit because of bad weather. SHIT! it was 3:35pm and we were walking pretty slow now and we only had 55min to get up there which normally wouldn't be a problem but with a stuffed calf it kind of became a bit of a problem. OK all of a sudden I thought I haven't come all this way, gone through all this pain not to get to the summit so I blocked that calf pain out and we did a run/walk to Charlottes Pass getting there around 4:10pm with 20min to spare! We then went back into relax mode.
The next part of this adventure was something else! Kevin, Charlie and myself hiking to the summit congratulating, hugging, hi fiving all the other runners who were on there way back. We hiked through snow and ice stopping to use the highest toilet in Australia on the way and get to the summit in the most perfect weather you could ask for. We got some photo's taken then made our way back down the 9km to Charlottes pass to the finish. I saw Greg Brown and Keith Sullivan on our way back down and I just felt so happy they made it.
With 4km to go I got back into power walking mode just wanting to finish this thing now.

I crossed that line in 39hrs20min and 29th place out of 50

GNW100's a monster of a race!

Crazy, just flippin crazy. I haven't wrote on this thing for a bit because I'm just a lazy guy at heart but this race is like no other so my thoughts on it and how I went.

PRE RACE

Ok well I pretty much stopped running for 4 weeks prior to this event because of an achilles issue. My last proper run was relay for life where I clocked up 100km but also flared up my achilles so since then it's been cycling lots and swimming a fair bit.

The week prior before GNW I drove to Canberra and when I got there my achilles was blown up like a balloon then the next morning it went down I I drove home and again it was puffed up like a balloon. Monday I decide to send Dave Byrnes an email saying I'm pulling out but for some reason the email wouldn't go through so I thought I'll send it again tomorrow. The next day I thought "hell with it let's give it a shot and see how I go" So I email Dave and ask if it's too late to book the pre race dinner and the next thing I know I'm going ahead with it.

I decide I better try some kind of running before the big day so I get on the treadmill twice that week and ran 10km each time. No flare up of the achilles and I did see the physio the week earlier and he said it's ok to start up some running so what's 175km I think...thats some running so all of a sudden I'm excited like a little school kid eating straight milo out of the tin!

I now get all my drop bags ready and with my mum just living 10min up the road from the start I'm all set to go.
The Friday comes and I drive up there and get my drop bags ready then see it's a total fire ban for the Sat in the greater Hunter.....arrrgghhhhh!!! That should mean a cancelled race but Dave Byrnes being Dave Byrnes manages to get the all clear to go ahead :-)

At the pre race dinner I somehow get talked into cooking up potatoes for the first 2 checkpoints as they couldn't cook them up on the day because of the fire ban. I finish dinner go back to mum's and with her help we cook the potatoes.....forget the potatoes are boiling away then remember then get overcooked potatoes ready for the first 2 checkpoints. Sorry if they were a bit soggy!

Now the night of the race is hot so I decide to sleep in the lounge room on a lounge with the air conditioner going and with a total of 3hrs sleep I'm ready to rock'n'roll!

THE RACE

So I turn up to the start line thinking I might do ok. I set a goal just to go checkpoint to checkpoint and see how far I get.

After the fun of getting weighed, chatting to all the other runners who are also looking quite excited we listen to Dave go through the speech of welcome and good luck and explaining the rules and etiquette of the race.

6am Dave say's go and we are off to war but we don't know it's war just yet.

I get running really comfortable taking care not to stress my achilles and I'm running with Spud, Nikolay and a few others until a little bit past where the trail start. From then on it was feeling great to cp1. I'm out of there after about 5min and going good. A few Km's on and I'm trying to open a bottle of coke and while I'm doing that I trip on a stick or something and fall pretty bad but I get up and continue with a blood drawn arm. It was this stage I had my first real cramp. WTF!  I never cramp I'm I've been taking salt tablets every hr. Anyway I come good and just slog the next 10 or so km to Congewai rd. I'm running with Dave Waugh for a bit then I loose him then I catch back up to him then I get away from him again and the next thing I see Damien Smith sitting down. We run together to the Congewai rd and I'm thinking I'd love it to rain right now. I'm still feeling ok and I've run 45km so thinking that's good. 5min later I feel a bit sick so I go to have a drink and .........NO WATER LEFT! Ohhhh dear. I get about another km then decide I need to walk and save myself for the hills ahead. I'm in about 6th place at this stage.

All of a sudden things got real bad real quick. The temp was now 38deg and I'm on a dirt road with no shade with the sun reflecting off the road on me and hitting me straight from above. I walked into cp2 (52km) absolutely stuffed dry reaching a few times. I get weighed and I've gone from 69.8kg to 65.2kg!

I sat there cooling off getting fluid in me and lying on the green stretcher for 1hr10min then head back out there.

All of a sudden I'm feeling great again thinking I'm going to do this. I pass a few runners and the next thing I'm heading up the communications tower surprisingly catching Nikolay and  Antoniya the woman that ended up winning the female event. I get to the top back to running feeling pretty good plodding along passing all these runners sitting down trying to find shade from the sun. Other runners are helping them and from then on I was running on and off with Antoniya up the next big hill past Watagens Ck. We get to the unmanned water stop and I tip what was left in my water bottle all over my head to cool me down, refill my bottles and head off. Now somewhere here things went down hill really quick. I get plodding and a few km's later my quads have seized up and I can no longer run down hill. Not long later I cant hardly walk up hill. I start to think just get to cp3 (80km) and maybe I'll be able to rest again then come good. I soon find even walking really tough and see a log and decide to sit until I see another runner then get going again. I sit for about 10min then 3 runners came by. I then think I'll wait until the next lot come by and I'll run to the Basin CP3 with them. 15min and no other runners I get up and plod at about 20min-24min/km pace. 

I manage to get into the Basin 1hr40min after I started to walk again and that's only 5km. 

I then tell them I'm pulling out as I was worried if I continued I may not be well for C2K.

So after I thought about the event I was really happy I got to where I did. 49 people pilled out at CP2 and only 29% of the field finished the 100mile. That would have to be the biggest drop out rate of any race that I know of anywhere in the world.

I managed to walk into cp2 feeling like death then gain enough strength to continue another 30km

A run, a swim a scone and coffee.......It's Friday!

Pretty chilled out day. Leg was tight but ok to run on as long as I didn't run too fast which was fine as I only wanted to do an easy 12k. Ran from WoyWoy pool towards Koolewong and back. 4:50 pace for 12.7km.
Then it was in the pool for an easy 2k swim done in 19min then a MASSIVE date scone and a coffee

Thursday hills

Leg felt pretty good when I took off this morning for the first few km's then once I started on the hills I started to feel it. Wasn't too bad the whole run and I managed 18.5km running from Terrigal to Erina and Wamberal and back. Had an average pace of 4:50/km.

Later I went to the gym and got a leg workout done

Tues

Went out for a 17km run average pace of about 5:12/km so easy. It was from Terrigal up Crommerty hill and back so a nice hill in there. I didn't want to push the pace at all with my hamstring the way it is. In fact it felt good until about 7km when I started the climb up the hill then I felt it for about 6km then it came good in the last 4km. I mixed the pace up doing around 5min pace for the first 5km and around 4:45/4:50 pace for the fast few km's and a coupe of 5:25 pace in the middle to get the feeling of running really slow which I'll be doing more as C2K gets closer.
Later I went and got a massage and tonight I did the 6:30pm cycle class which I could slightly feel my hamstring then did physio exercises and leg weights

Monday

My hamstring felt a bit better this morning. I did get to the gym where I ran slow 2km on the treadmill then did the physio exercises I was given for this injury last yr then another 2km on the treadmill.

Tonight I got on the bike trainer and got 1hr done

speed hurts!

Haven't posted for a few days because I've been a bit pissed off. Thursday morning I went to the track and did 3x5x200m doing each around 31-34sec but in doing so my left hamstring flared up and quite frankly I'm annoyed. Annoyed that by doing one simple speed track session it could cause so much fucking pain! Anyway Friday morning I went for an easy 10k and all was ok and Sat I ran trotters and covered 11.5km all up and for the rest of the day I spent self massaging my hamstring and glute.
I entered coast to Kosi on Sat but would be much happier if my hamstring felt better.
Today (Sunday) I took off from running an downd feel much more positive as my hamstring feels like it has settled down.
I managed a swim of just over 1.5km then off to the gym for a lot of hamstring strength work. I now plan on taking until Thurs/Fri off from running then get back into it

Wed

I've had the last two days off running since Woodford to Glenbrook as my calves took a hiding and that left hamstring/adductor still feels "wrong" Anyway I decided to put on the Mizuno's and get out the door. Just ran easy around Terrigal heading towards Erina covering 13.3km in 1hr7min. The leg was ok but could feel the difference between the left and right
Tomorrow I plan on meeting with fellow trotters and do their track session.

Woodford to Glenbrook

This was my 3rd time running in this race. The first time was in 2010 where I was pacing another runner and we finished just over 2 hrs, then in 2011 I was going to race it but pinched a nerve in my back and was forced to walk most of it. This yr I toed the line and felt pretty good except for that hamstring that's been playing up for the last two weeks. Anyway I took off and felt the pace was quite easy but after going through the first km in 3:28 and the 2nd in 3:32 I thought maybe I've gone too hard.
I just kept a pace that was hard but comfortable for the first 12km then i knew I should be able to take off as the last 12-13km is all down hill.
I finished in 11th place and 4th in my age group in 1:40:06 so I was happy with that

A great day with my running mate with lot's and lot's of laughs!

Friday and Sat

Fri I made my way down to Canberra for my monthly trip. This time I stopped at Bowral and explored the trais around Mt Gib. I also found a bike path to run the last 4 odd km's on. 13km done

Sat in Canberra and I just ran a really east 11km on Lake Burley Griffin

Recovery run

I was going to get up early and meet fellow trotters at 5:30am for the morning track session but decided that I needed the extra sleep and with my adductor magnus pain it would be better to do an easy run instead. So I go up about 7:30am and by 8am I was off running around Terrigal, Wamberal to Forries beach then back to Terrigal running 15.4km all up at about 5:06km pace. My leg was fine running but could feel it through certain movements throughout the day

Mid week long run and a massage

Had to go to Newcastle to massage the knights so I got up there a little early and got a run in from Carrington towards King Edwards park and back going via the break wall. 20.08km in 1hr33min or 4:36km pace. My adductor Magnus was slightly sore throughout the day so I got a massage on it

Tuesday....2 runs and an RPM class

I got some speed work done this morning ad boy did I feel it too! Started with a 5min warmup running pretty slow and easy then did 10x2min hard with a 1min recovery between each hard effort. After 5 of them I ran 5min easy before doing another 5. Ran from my new house in Terrigal to Wamberal and back. 10km in a little over 47:58

The second run was bout 4pm where I ran a lot of the hills in Terrigal including Wilsons rd and made my way over to Wamberal. This was 10.25km in 49:40. Legs were pretty heavy.

After all that I went to the gym and did the 5:30pm cycle class and relaxed in the steam room for a bit

Sunday hangover run

Went to the Trotter awards night last night and had quite a bit to drink and didn't get to sleep until about 1am so this morning I found it hard to get up to run but got out the door at 8am and ran 23.2km in just under 2hrs
I felt pretty good running which I was amazed at

Saturday Trotters old bay to bay breakers relay

Got a call last night to see if i could fill in for a sick runner so I turned up just before 4;30am to meet all the other runners 11 male vs 11 female all doing a 1km leg with the girls having a 6min45ec start. My 1km was pretty much all down hill so I knew I would do a fast time but didn't think I would go as fast as I did. I had Donna there doing the female leg and we did a warmup together as we had almost an hr to fill in.
It ended up being Donna having about 1min lead with the change over and I just ran as hard as I could. At one stage I thought I was going to collapse! I passed Donna with about 200m to go and just kept running like my life depended on it.I passed the baton to Mark Dunlop and ran that 1km in 2min43sec!
The boys beat he girls but not by much.
After all that we ran 14.6km up kincumba mtn

Friday

Managed an easy 11km run an later a swim of 20x50m repeats finishing the 1km in 14:32

Thurs recovery

Still got a sore hamstring/adductor Magnus muscle so just ran a nice easy pace towards Kincumber and back to Bensville. 15.3km in 1hr17min

Later I went and got another massage. That's 2 massages I've got this week

Wed

Started my run at Terrigal (Duffys oval) at 6am and ran 17.3km in 1hr18min or 4:31km pace doing the old waterslide run up towards Tumbi rd. My left hamstring got tight after about 5km and at 8.5km I stopped for a sec just to stretch out a bit.

After the run I went to the gym and did a cycle class. I wanted to do a double cycle class but I was just too tired so I hit the steam room instead 

Tuesday in Bouddi

Woke up yesterday with a really sore left hamstring and went and got a massage and put the tens machine on it for most of the day and this morning it was pretty good.
Easy recovery run this morning. Just took off out the door then decided where I wanted to go. No plan except to run nice and easy. I ran around some streets and on a small trail around Bensville then made my way to Bouddi which has some great fire trails and single trails to run on.
Ran 15.3km all up in 1:22:16 so it was nice and easy.

Later I went to Mingara pool and did 10x100m intervals finishing the 1km in 16min34sec

Lake Macquarie Half

I felt pretty good this morning and thought I may as well go out at a descent pace and just see what happens. So we get racing at 8am and I go through the first km in 3:50 and the 2nd in 3:47. I'm feeling pretty good for the first 5km and manage to do most of my km's under 4min the held 4min pace until 12km when all of a sudden the legs got heavy. Now I'm doing about 4:10-4:15km pace and hold that until I finish. Finished in about 86min30sec and I was pretty rapt with that. Normally I'd be bummed at a time like that but to only been back running for a couple of weeks after 5 weeks of no running with a stress fracture I think I did a great job.

Right now I have a sore left hamstring and very sore legs in general. That's the first hard road run I've done in a long long long time and it smashes your muscles much more than a trail race. Not saying a road race is harder or easier than a trail race it's just that they are both very different

Thursday and the first moderate pace run in ages!

An 11.6km run with an average pace of 4:28 done. Felt fine in the leg but again it had slight tightness but nothing that seemed to be a worry.

Happy with the way my running is coming back

Wednesday

Ran an easy 11km in about 5:10km pace just running around the streets of Bensville and Sth Kincumber. Right peroneals still tight but doesn't bother me in the slightest running.

So that's my day training wise. Not much but it's good to be running :-)

Tuesday

Tight muscles today in the right peroneals. Now I'm just being careful with that as that's what caused the stress fracture. No pain running at all but just felt tight throughout the day. It's also down near the ankle not up near the knee where it was last time so I'm thinking it's most likely from the walk on Sunday

Anyway I got 12km in this morning at 4:52km pace

Later in the afternoon I did an hour on the bike on the indoor trainer

Monday morning DOMS

Well more than just morning DOMS...more like all day DOMS! Left hamsting took a beating yesterday but I'm happy to be sore from doms pain rather than from injury pain.

So training today was recovery day. A 2km swim and a cycle class in the afternoon

Fri, Sat and Sun

big few days since Friday. Friday I'm up really early and when I say early I mean early. I was on my way to Canberra and planned to run at Mittagong on the way down. So I'm in Mittagong by 6:30am and set off for a 10km easy run. It was cold however -4deg is COLD!

Sat I ran an easy 12km on Lake Burley Griffin

Sunday (today) I went with the Terrigal Trotters for a 42km trek on the Great North Road. I've never been on this trail before and it was another magical area that we are so lucky to have on the Central Coast.
I decided to walk most of this and was hoping to finish around 6hrs. I power walk and right near the end I get lost and add another 4km to the walk. I finished 46km in 5hrs52min. Very hard on the body! I ran one section for about 500m and ran some other sections but only about 40m or 50m each time. Basically I walked about 98% of the trail.

The great news on all of this is I had no bone pain! :-)

Thursday

As planned I took today off running and did an early morning cycle class.

Later I got out for a 5km walk around Erina doing that in about 40min then I went to the gym for some core work and of course the steamroom!

Wed another nice run done

Same as yesterday. Out the door about 5:45am for an easy 11km. Ran just a little over 5min km pace and had no pain. I could feel the leg was a little "tight" but really happy to have gotten through 2 easy 11km runs without a problem.

So tomorrow I'll back off the running and do a cycle class in the morning

Tuesday and a run done!

Happy to say I ran and had no problem. 11km easy in about 55:40.
The rest of the day was doing a couple of massages starting at 7:45am at home then off to Newcastle to massage the Knights, back home to do another massage then to Vitality (WoyWoy) to do a couple more massages. Done and dusted by 9pm.....Stuffed!

Monday and a positive word from the physio

Busy busy flat out day working today. Had a visit to see Stan and he believes I'm ok to start running but I just need to be careful and really listen to my body so that was great news!

Other than that I worked

Sunday....City to Surf massage style

Big long day! Much easier to run this event than to massage at it.
So the day starts with my alarm going off at 3:15am and 15min later I manage to get up. By 4am I'm on my way to Bondi Beach and by 5:20am I've parked the car gone and set my gear up then met with some other massage therapists and we head off for a bit of a work meeting and back to watch the leaders finish.

Pretty much started massaging at 9am and didn't stop until 2:30pm. Lot's of runners massaged in that time.

Then it was the drive home.

So that's my training day done!

walk, ride, rpm, swim...the life of an injured ultra runner!

Magic morning with the sun shining and just felt like spring without the magpies swooping!

Saturday morning and I drive down to Trotters. I haven't been there in a little while so I popped on down and while they were out running 11km I set out for a walk. I got just over 7km in the hr on a hilly course that included Charles Kay drive. I'm amazed at how quick I can walk if I put my mind to it. So much so that next week when the trotters head out on the Great north road 42km run I'm going along but will just power walk it.
After that I rode to the gym where I got a rpm class in then got on the bike again and rode around 55km from Erina to Nora Head roundabout then back to my car at Terrigal.

After all that it was then off to Mingara pool for a recovery swim. 1km in 18:08. I was going to swim 2 or 3km but my left shoulder was a tiny bit achy and the last time I pushed through the ache of a shoulder swimming I couldn't swim again for months

Again I have no pain anywhere in the stress fracture

Awesome morning of training!

Friday.......no pain running but scan says stress fracture!

So that's a bloody bugger. Bone scan shows hotspots right where I've been getting the pain which now seems to have gone. All is not lost as it could be showing activity from the bone remodeling itself as part of the healing process. I'll see Stan on Monday and see what he says. The last time I had a bone scan about 3yrs ago it showed hotspots on my pubis area which also showed up again. So with that in mind it can take a while for the hotspots to go. Anyway no pain touching the bone now or running on it which I'll stop now until I get the all clear.

Anyway I did run today. First non-stop 10km in 4 weeks and I decided that if I felt any pain at all I would stop and just walk. I got through 10km in 50min totally pain free. I stopped for a minute at 5km just to access the leg and palpate it but all was good. The only thing I noticed was tight calves.

So with that I'm happy with the way it feels.

Tomorrow I'll go to trotters and walk then get on the bike

Thursday and another pain free run/walk!

So I got up early and this time I did a 1min walk/2min run for 10km which I took just over an hour to do. Great news again I had no pain at all so things are looking up. Tomorrow I'll try a 10k very easy run without the walk and see how that goes.

At 9:45am I did a cycle class and went from there to Mingara pool and swam 2km in about 37min

Wednesday....a run/walk done!

Very happy today. Drove to the gym for a cycle class but got there early and decided to walk 1min then run 1min for 10km. Did that in 1hr5min. If I was to feel any pain whatsoever I would just walk. Good news is it was fine. No pain at all. Even better is there was no pain as the day went on. I'm not getting too excited just yet though. I'll wait until I get the bone scan done to be sure.
After the run/walk I did a cycle class

Tuesday

Up early for another cycle class. Getting lot's of these done of late.

Later in the afternoon I got to Mingara pool and swam 3km in just under 1hr

Monday in the pool

I was going to get up really early (5am) and go to the pool but after 12 beers last night I decided to sleep in until 6:15am. So still up early but had to get ready for work.

Off to the doctor to see what he recons about my xray and as I thought there was no sign of anything so I got him to refer me for a bone scan. So that's what he did and Friday I go and get that done.

I got a quick swim done at 3:30pm. 1km pretty much none stop in 17min22sec. That felt pretty easy and was much faster than I've done in a long time.

Other good news is my leg pain has no pain. I've pushed on it jumped up and down on the spot ran up the road and back and also after yesterdays walk no pain so all is looking good!

A last min random Bouddi walk!

My bike needs a service and the gears are playing up so I decided to sleep in until almost 8am which is really rare for me on a Sunday. In fact it's really rare for me to sleep in on any day!

So I decided to do the 9:15am cycle class but before that I did a 3.2km walk. Then once that was all done I got in the Sauna and steam room for about 45min. I was pretty relaxed after that.

I then took my bike down to Bike Worx to put it in for a service. Then I was thinking I might go for a walk in Bouddi. The day was magic with the sun shining so I thought it would be great to be out on the trails.
So I parked at Macmasters Beach and off I walked. Walked to Maitland Bay going up Mt Bouddi then on the Storm fire trail to the Maitland Bay car park where I got a drink from that magic water bubbler. I swear that's the best water on the Central Coast!
Then it was down the steps to Maitland bay beach and back to Macmasters Beach.
A hilly 16.8km in 2hrs48min.

The great thing about the whole walk is I had no pain at all.

So now I can sit with a smile on my dial with a nice cold beer....(and a cherry ripe!)

Happy Sunday!

Saturday....BWS has a great deal on different types of beer! Wooohoooo!

 So as the headline says I found out BWS has a deal of mixing 4x6packs for $42. So I grab a Sol, Stella Artois, Carlsberg and Miller. So I've got some sampling to do!

Ok well training today was a ride from Warners Bay to Kotatra and back. About 18km then to the gym at Kotara for a 60min rpm class.

Then I'm at Mingara pool for a 3km swim in 53:57 but did it in lots of 10 laps

Thursday and Friday

Thursday - Cycle class first thing then after having a client at work I went to Gosford pool and swam 2km in about 37min.

Friday - Got to the gym about 7:45am and rode the spin bike for 50min before I did another bloody cycle class.
That's pretty much it

hump day

Another pretty good day of training done. I'm hoping to keep all this up until I'm back running and hopefully I'll have some decent fitness still there.  Maybe not run fitness but it should be quicker to get that back.

My leg is feeling really good. I haven't tried pushing on the bone as I know that will hurt. And that's a hurt that makes me feel ill.

So today's training went like this
At 8:45am I got a double cycle class done then at 11:30am I did bodybalance.

Then after I finished work I got to WoyWoy pool which was 25m tonight and swam 2km in 35min38sec but I did ot in 8x10 laps

Tuesday

Off to the gym for 6:15am rpm class then after that did another 65min on the spin bike doing 6x 5min seated and 5min standing upping the resistance every min.
Then I made my way to Mingara pool and got 3km done. I did this in intervals starting with a 10lap warmup then I did 10x50m hard with a 50m recovery then did 5laps easy then did the 10x50m hard 50m recovery and finally finished with 5 laps easy. 3km in 52min15sec swimming time. I was in the pool for over an hour though.
So that's today's training done.  The rest of the day was spent in Newcastle messaging the knights then back to the coast to do a couple of more massages

Great day!

Monday. ..recovery and Xray and abs

So today was doing a heap of massages going to the gym for a very quick 20min ab workout then off to get my leg xray. So what showed up?  I think I can see Grey areas showing where the stressie is but hey I'm just a massage therapist so what would I know? So I guess the next step is to make another doctor appointment and go from there. I'll also book in to see my physio

Sundays long ride

Up for a very foggy ride. Rugged up and was out riding by 6:40am. Made the ride up as I went and managed to do a loop covering most of the Central Coast making my way up near the Gwandalan turn off going through the National Park then down towards Wyong, Ourimbah, West Gosford,  Umina beach and back to Bensville.  I stopped about 3 times mainly to stretch my back oyt.

All up 129.3km in about 4hr40min. 27.7km/hr

Awesome Sunday!

Saturday's training

Fantastic day of training.  Got rugged up for a chilly ride. Rode 12km to trotters where they were doing the presentations for the super7's. After about 30min of chatting to a a lot of people I made my way to the gym to do the 8:45am rpm class.  18.5km for the first ride.
After rpm I rode home via West Gosford and Umina. So another 35.5km done with an average speed of just under 29km/hr. 54km in total for the bike.

Then I went to Mingara pool and swam 1.5km in around 27min.  I was going to swim 3km but on the last few laps I swam I kept cramping in the legs when I pushed off the wall.

At 4pm I got back to the gym for yoga  

Feel good Friday!

Yep the leg feels good today. In fact it feels like its fine to run on. Hell it feels like I could jump off my balcony but hey I'm not likely to even run across the road (unless I was about to be hit by a bus)

Went to the Dr today and had a 10am appointment. Walk in patients had a 45min wait so I thought I should be seen by 10:20. Well 10:50am I got to see the Dr. Very bloody unhappy I was!

Anyway I tell him all about my injury and gave him the letter from my physio and I just want the referral for the bone scan and I can be on my merry way. But he decides im better off having an Xray first. 

So I book the Xray for Monday and take it from there.  

So today I went to the gym first up and did 1hr on the spin bike. 

At 5:30pm I made it to the cycle class

Thursday

Haven't even tried to do any impact on my leg and I'm feeling really good. No pain at all but I know if I tried to even run up and down on the spot I would feel it but doing what I've been doing and it's all good.

So today I got up about 6am and was in the pool by just after 7am. Swam 3km all up breaking it down to swimming 5x10 laps and the last 10 laps I swam 5x2 laps. Around 56min of swimming in total.

Then it was to the gym to do a cycle class. I warmed up beforehand spending 15min on the bike then did the class which I smashed myself in.

Other than that it was off to Newcastle to massage the knights then back to the coast to do more massage

Wednesday.....spin and swim

I'm feeling really fit right now and even waking up less tired. Maybe doing more training is helping?
No early morning cycle class this morning so I went to the gym and did a 90min on the spin bike doing intervals to music.

Mid morning I got an all over massage then I hit the pool. Only had 30min so swam 1km in just under 20min.

Happy with all that!

Tuesday and lot's of time in the pedals

Fantastic day of training today. Right now I'm loving all this cross training and actually feel quite fit.
I got up and went to the 6:15am cycle class smashing my legs in that. After a few clients I got on the bike and went for a 44km ride with an average speed of just over 30km/hr. Rode from Bensville going aroung the bay but also through Umina Beach.
After my afternoon clients I went back to the gym to do the 6:30pm cycle class which was great. A lot of 20sec intervals with 10sec recovery. I was totally legless at the end. Then in the steam room which I managed to do some meditation for about 20min.

So quite a bit done but I feel like I've got lot's of energy and feeling the best I've felt in yrs

Monday.....Physio says it looks like a stressie

Felt pretty good today. Pain in the leg was only sore if I pushed on it. After seeing a few clients in the morning I got to Kincumber pool and swam 2km at a pretty easy pace. It's a 25m pool so I broke it up by swimming 8x10 laps. That took around 40min

Next stop was to see Stan (physio) I got a small strength workout in on the cable machine while I waited and after a few min he pushed on my fibula and agreed with me that it looked like a stress fracture. Need to see a GP to get a referral for a bone scan so I made an appointment to see a dr as soon as I left but couldn't get one until Friday morning. Not that it really matters. I'm almost 100% sure it's a stress fracture and that means I can do anything that doesn't make it hurt and have to avoid anything that brings on the pain.

Later I went back to the gym and did the 6:45pm yoga class

Sundays long ride.

Got up and noticed it was a stunning blue sky day. Walking outside to feel how cold it was and it didn't seem too bad so I put on a skins top, arm warmers and a cycle top, long compression paints with cycle shorts over the top of them and a pair of gloves. Thing that would be enough I set out to ride from Bensville to Swansea and back. I got 600m up the road and turned around went back inside and got a cycle jacket as well. It's much friggin colder on the bike!
Rugged up I make my journey to Swansea. 63km later and I'm there and had an average speed of 27.6km at this stage. I stopped for about 15min to enjoy the view, take a couple of photos and have a good leg and back stretch.
I then made my back but going a bit more scenic through Catherine Hill Bay so some extra hills in there and around past Shelly beach. I got to Terrigal feeling tired but strong with an average speed of 27.4km and only had 12km to go from here but the hills on the way home just smashed me!
Rode 129.5km in 4hrs49min with a total of 1,245m in elevation.

After a milkshake I managed to get to the gym for a bodybalance class but my left high hamstring was sore after that and still is as I write this.

My injured shin felt great on the ride and have to pain since I finished

All in all though a great day of training

Friday and Saturday

Friday was up just before 4am to drive the girls back to Canberra.
After I dropped them off I got to the gym and had enough time to do 40min on the spin bike. Did 5min seated hard then 5min standing and just repeated that for 40min

Saturday I only had enough time to do 30min on the spin bike. Would've had more time if the gym was open before 7am on a Saturday.
Just did 1min hard efforts with a 1min recovery x 15 on the spin bike

Thursday

Shin is good walking around again but not as far as jumping.
Up for a 6:15am cycle class then some strength work after that.
Later in the arvo I went back to the gym and got on the spin bike and did intervals. 20x1min hard with a 1min recovery then a 5min easy to finish off. Felt pretty smashed after that.
Made a booking with Stan the physio for Monday

Wednesday.....staying away from that thing called running!

Yep no running today and I don't plan on running this week. Moderate pain when I got up but got better as the day went on. Still hurts to jump on it.
So I got up early and made my way to Kotara Gym to do a cycle class then some strength work.
Later at work I had an hour break so I got to the gym for the 2nd time today and did a quick workout of 10x1min hard on the spin bikes with a 1min recovery

Tuesday....maybe a run to soon?

Got up and no pain. Jumped up and down on my leg no pain, ran up and down on the spot and no pain a small jog down the driveway and no pain but tightness so I'm thinking that's all a great thing!

So later I'm up in Newcastle staying at my mum's and I decide to have a jog and test the leg out. I get to 1k and all good. 1.5km and tightness in calf, 2km and it starts to hurt slightly. 3km and it's a discomfort but not too bad. 5km and I stop turn around and start to run back but at a slower 5:10 km pace. By 8km the pain is now in the calf and in the shin. 10km later and I get back in 49:xx and think I'm not ready to resume running.

I'll wait until tomorrow and decide if I'll attempt another run or rest

Monday day 5 of no running. What a difference 24hrs can make!

Again no running and shin was sore when I got up but felt a lot better than yesterday and by tonight it feels fine walking on. No pain whatsoever! If I jump up and down no pain but if I push off on the foot barefoot a slight pain. So After the past 5 days of having this thing ache like it was a stress fracture, tonight it feels almost normal. The past 6 or 7 weeks it's been sore at all times but sometimes just a small ache but right now no pain at all! That's something that put a big smile on my face and I may be back running again soon....yay!!!!

Sunday....day 4 of no running

Woke up and as soon as I put my foot on the ground pain went up my lower leg. I'm thinking now it could very well be a fibula stress fracture. If it is the positive is it's only 6-8wks. If it's not then most soft tissue injuries heals within 2-6 wks so I guess a bit of a break and I should be back feeling nice and fresh! I was planning on taking August off anyway so it's just a bit earlier.

Today was spent taking Skyla and Tiff down to Sydney with Mum and Gavin. A lot of walking and a trip to Manly made for quite a big day!

Thurs, Friday and Saturday

No running since Wednesday and I don't think I'l be running anytime soon but that's the way the cookie crumbles!

Thursday I woke up with sore calf/shin and was painful to walk on let alone attempt to run so instead I went to the gym and did 1hr on the bike.

Friday again leg was sore and I spent the day driving to Canberra to pick up my girls and drive them home. I timed it so I got to Canberra in time to do a cycle class.

Today (Saturday) I again had a sore lower leg but felt better as the day went on. Did a double cycle class and it got better as the day went on. Still very sore to run up and down on the spot and I won't attempt to run on it again until I can run up and down on the spot without pain

Injuries come and go and that's the runners life!

I managed to do my planned run of 21.4km in 1hr38min so a nice pace. Ran from Bensville to Davistown and back. Shin was again causing discomfort at the start but quite manageable but felt quite sore on some of the downhills then it would feel ok again.
I've decided enough's enough and it's time to give in to this injury and REST!
The frustrating thing was it got quite achy as the day went on and was more painful on certain movments than normal. I'm pretty certain it's soft tissue not a stress fracture as the tibia bone has no pain on touching and even though it's hard to feel the fibula through the calf muscles what I can touch is all pain free. The only bit where I can tell that's causing this problem is the soleus up near the knee and my peroneus longus around the same area. It's not too bad to massage, slightly painful on the foam roller but as soon as I land with my forefoot to the ground that's when I get the pain.

I don't really mind having a break from running when an injury strikes as I'm not a fan of running with pain. It's not enjoyable one bit. The annoying thing is having to stop when a race you had planned to do is not too far away.

With me I was planning on doing a sub 3hr at Hunter Valley marathon in 2 weeks but it's not looking too good of even making the start line. I have the M7 marathon the following week so I may have a chance for that one it just maybe over 3hrs. Other than that I've got nothing planned until October when I want to do the 24hr race in Auckland then in Nov GNW100 then in December Coast to Kosi.

So if I miss out on Hunter Valley or the M7 it's not really a big deal as they were something I decided to do not that long ago. The main focus is getting to the start line in October, November and December

Tuesdays tempo and a second run thrown in there and a swim!

How's the calf/shin is the first thing I think of when I wake up nowadays and this morning it felt the same as usual...achy with slight discomfort on the first few steps then after a little while it's fine to walk on so I then do a quick run up and down on the spot to test it out a bit more and this morning was the same as every other morning, a slight pain that's about a 3/10 on the pain scale.

Anyway as it's not getting worse I kept up with this mornings planned session. A 2km warmup then a 5km tempo and a 4km warmdown.

I managed to do the 5km in a little over 19min30sec so I was happy with that. I was even more happy that my shin had no pain doing the tempo but on the last 4km running easy it got to a 4-5/10. Came good after I stopped though. 11.4km done in total

I then headed off to the pool and got 2km in there. I almost stopped after 1km because I was finding it bloody boring swimming along the black line but then thought I paid $6.20 to do this bloody swim so 1km wasn't enough.

Later on I got a 10.1km done in 47:05. Shin/calf was good until the last 3km when it bacame slightly achy

Monday.another active recovery day

No running and that's a good thing as my calf and shin were a bit achy. I got to a bodybalance class and am finding these getting easier now.
It was then in the steamroom for a while then off to get a massage

Sunday....Orchard BBQ and Beer run

Got to Palmdale just before 6:45am and there was Mick Miles, Mark Lee, Jess Mitchell and Ian Temblett. Jess went for a ride on the road to do some hill repeats, Mick was on his MTN bike riding with us for part of the run and Mark, Ian and myself headed off on a nice easy pace. My shin was ok but I could feel it but pretty much stayed good for me until the last couple of km's and then felt tight.

We ran together until about the the intersection which is a little over 10km then I just picked up the pace slightly while Mark and Ian kept the easy pace. I got to the tar road in around 1hr20min and waited about 1min for the others then we made our way back. I pushed a little harder on the way back and all was good until the last 5km and that's when my calf/shin felt tight mainly on the uneven downhill. Mick came flying past me on his mtn bike around this time and about 3km from the finish Mark caught up to me. We ran a pretty hard pace (for my standards) for the last 2km and finished in 2hrs30min46sec for 31.8km.

We finished with some snags on a bbq and a couple of beers

Sat Lake Ginninderra Park run 5km and freezing bloody hands!!!

First time for me doing a park run and what a great run it is! The Canberra one is held on Lake Ginninderra in Belconnen. This lake use to be my home training ground and I have run many km's around the lake. It's where all my running began back in 1999.

The race started at 8am and all rugged up I went for a lap of the lake for a warm up around 7am. The lake is 7.1km and I did that around 33:30ish. It wasn't too cold at 6deg but the wind was really blowy which made it feel more like -2deg.
At 8am I lined up with 116 other runners braving the windy cold conditions. I wore Compression shorts,a running t-shirt and for some stupid reason I didn't think I'd need my gloves. (what a stupid mistake that was!)

After about 2min I started to feel the cold air hitting my lungs and by 2km I had to use my puffer twice. I thought I was running much faster than I was and by 3.5km my lungs were burning and I had snot and all sorts of shit all over my face! Pretty hey! I finished in 19:03 11th pace and 3rd in my age absolutely feeling like shit! I got my barcode scanned then I thought my hands feel a bit cold. The next thing I think my hand are freezing cold. Next thing I can't feel anything except intense pain in the fingers. I rushed to the car and in agony I sat there trying to get them warm on the heater. 10min it took before they came good. I thought I was going to get frostbite and they will have to cut my fingers off!

My calf/shin was great and in the race I couldn't feel it at all! However I could feel it as the day went on

Anyway 15min later the pain was gone and I was off for a 1km warmdown then coffee then a heap of massages then a 4hr30min drive to Newcastle to visit mum

Friday's Mittagong run

On my way to Canberra stopping at Mittagong for a 10k run in 48:10, I like to stop, get out of the car and stretch the legs when I go to Canberra. I just normally run this out and back run thats got some slight hills but nothing major. The shin and calf was great. I could feel it in the last couple of km's but the best it's felt yet!

At 5pm I did a 90min yoga class and have been feeling my high hamstring on the left again after that. It seems ok but just a little achy

Thursday back at the track

Got to Terrigal around 5am and met up with Jenny and Ian and we got about a 5km warmup done bumping into Mark Lee mid way though. Shin was quite achy for most of this session which made me feel pretty down.  Made our way over to the haven and we did 12 laps running the straights hard and easy on the bends. I did an extra one so 13 all up then about a 5km warmdown. I'm thinking about 14km in this session.

Later I got some KT tape and taped my shin up went to the gym hopped on the treadmill and ran another 8km feeling not much pain at all. Could that tape be a major key?

Easy Wed and shin was pretty gooooood!

Early morning run getting out running at 5:40am. 16.3km in 1:17:27 (4:45 km pace) from home to just over the rip bridge and back.
Just ran an easy to moderate pace and was really happy with my shin. It was about a 2/10 pain wise for most of the run except for some of the downhill on the way back when it became about 4/10 and was more in the calf.

Tues..Morning intervals, swim arvo run and oh yeah with that shin pain

Got a nice sleep in and didn't get my butt out of bed until 8am.
Shin felt about the same as it does in the morning a slight pain of about 2/10.

Got out the door and did the planned morning session of intervals running a 5min warm up then 10x3min hard with a 1min recovery. The shin pain got to about a 4-5/10 but was also mild for a lot of the run. It doesn't matter the pace I run or the distance as it either stays the same or if anything gets slightly better the further I run. Or that could just be me getting use to it. I had some kinesiology tape on it late last week and I honestly think that made a big difference so I found some this afternoon and applied it to my shin again.
Anyway back to this mornings run. Other than some mild shin pain the rest of the run was great. Ran 11km in total in 48:18.

Late morning I got a 2km swim in

At 2pm I got out for my second run. 10.2km in 47:07 running time. This time the shin pain was between 3-6/10 so slightly more painful than this mornings run. I stopped a couple of times to give it a quick massage. Still happy to be feeling good other than the shin.

21.2km in total today

Monday....recovery day

No running. Shin was ok but I could still notice it as I got up. Maybe that's part life once you age past 40.

Got to a body balance class in and other than work that's about it

Sunday at Ourimbah 32km

Shin wasn't the best today. No problem running on it but I could feel it that's for sure. Much different compared to yesterday.

I met up with Ian Temblett at 6:30 and we ran pretty easy the whole way. That's something I think may have made the shin ache a bit more. Sometimes running a bit faster seems to help it. The human body sure is some complex piece of engineering that's for sure!

The weather was perfect. Cool with a little drizzle and the trails were in pretty good condition. I was expecting the hill near the start to be quite slippery with clay but wasn't too bad.

We got to the intersection in about 58min, the green sign in 1hr6min and to the turn around in 1hr27min so nice and cruizy. On the way back we ran slightly faster as you do on this course. Just past the intersection I start to feel bloody hungry and start thinking of the Chocolate thickshake and donuts I'm going to have shortly!

Get to the road and it's here I put a bit of effort in mainly because I just wanted to finish.
We get back in 1hr17min so 2hr44min all up.

I then made my way to the gym to do some stretches and to use the steamroom then it was off to grab that thickshake!

Kerry Anderson handicap 10km

Since I haven't ran a trotters 10k flat tt in over a yr that meant I didn't have a handicap for this race so last night I msg Mark and get myself a handicap going off 39:30. That's about right I guess. I thought I'd be about 40min or just under fitness wise.
So I line up in the rain and am the only runner to go at that time. I ran bat out of hell knowing Kevin Byrne and Ian Temblette are only 15sec behind me. It doesn't take long and I start to pass a couple of runners then I'm on my own again for what seemed to be like a very long time. Just pass 3km Kevin Byrne catches me and we run together for a little while but he eventually drifts off into the distance.
On the turn around I can't see Ian and think that's a great sign and just try to push on. A little further I see Mark Lee powering along and decide I need to keep him behind me. By now I'm catching a lot of other runners an I'm hurting...hurting real bad. I see who I thought was Kevin just ahead but am seeing triple now and when I get a bit closer I notice It's not Kevin but Jame Moran wearing a bright green singlet similar to Kevin.
At 8km I start thinking I'd much rather be running GNW100 miler then think I should have under 8min to go.  Shit my legs are lactic and I'm trying to find an injury to justify slowing down but can't find one. My muscles decided to feel all good as far as niggles go then my inner voice kicks in and say's you're on the last hill...keep moving. I start to pass other runners and can see Kevin not too far ahead but know it's too late to catch him. WIth about 200m to go I'm on the home straight and my muscles are fucking burning. Finally cross the line in 22nd spot which wasn't too bad considering I was one of the last to get going and finished in 38:46 by my watch. About 30sec behind Kevin. It took about 3 or 4min before I could talk.

After all that was over I made my way to the gym for a cycle class. Great day!

Easy Friday

10km in 49:57 doing the first 5km in 25:47 so a bit faster on the way back. Ran down at Umina beach for a nice flat run. Shin was pretty good. A bit sore at the start but soon settled down. Felt low on energy as I didn't eat beforehand.
Went straight from that to a swim. 1.5km done in the pool. Would've done more but I had to get to work and I needed FOOD!!!!

Thursday...Intervals and I need a toilet!!!!!

A bit of fartlex this morning and my shin felt the best it's felt in ages. I could still feel it but it was all good. Pretty much ran from Bensville to Kincumber and back. 16.5km doing 5min warmup then 1min hard, 2min hard, 3min hard, 4min hard, 5min hard, 4min hard, 3min hard, 2min hard, 1min hard all with a 1min recovery jog between sets. Finished by running 38min back easy. On the first 3min hard interval I needed a toilet quick! Lucky I was near maccas!
All up it took just over 1hr15min.

At 10:30am I did a yoga class

Windy Wednesday

Shin wasn't too happy this morning. Felt fine until I ran then it was just achy. Sort of a mixture between pain and ache.
Ran an easy 10k in 47:23 stopping a few times in the first 5km too massage the shin and calf out. Always feels better for a while after a quick massage.

Then I went for a 1km swim then had the most painful calf massage I think I've ever had!

Finished my morning with bodybalance

Tempo Tuesday

Again the normal soreness in the shin when I got up. Laced my shoes up and headed out the door. Did a 1km warmup stopping a couple of times to stretch and massage my shin. Then off I went running to Empire Bay and back home. 10.2km in total in 40:36. That's just under 4min km pace so I was happy with that. Shin was ok doing the tempo run but could feel it the whole way. More of a slight ache.
I found the run hard at first with my asthma playing up.
After the tempo I did a 2km warmdown so 13.2km done today

Monday...active recovery day

Hard to get out of bed this morning. Those flannelette sheets really hold you hostage. Anyway I had no choice but to escape as I had clients to see.

Later I had physio on my shin and Stan said to see how it goes over the next 4 weeks and if no better come back otherwise he will see me again next time I'm broken.

Got a strength workout before I saw Stan then tonight I got a yoga class in.

Sydney trail running...Wildflower gardens 10km

After a few more beers than I should have consumed yesterday...(12 in total) I got up just before 5am. A couple pieces of toast, a shower and a big drink of water I'm off to the Hope's residence to meet Kerry and Charlie. We then then pick up Therese and Alyssa and make our way to St Ives. Finding a great parking spot which no one else managed to find we trudge through wet grass trying to keep my socks dry.

Finding a nice spot near the heater we huddle around until it was removed and located in a new location. 

With 30min before the hooter sounded Charlie and myself run some of the course for a warmup. Testing my shin and other than a slight ache  it's not too bad. 

Not long later we are lined up and ready to go. A great course of lots of technical single trails, lots of wet rocks, lots of puddles, lots of ferns, some nice steep downhill fire trails, a few stairs and we get to run the course twice.

I'm feeling great for most of the first lap but about 4km in my legs got heavy. First lap in 26min but have no idea of the seconds and I'm on my way in the second lap thinking I may do 2min slower so a finish time of 54min would be about right That second lap took just under 4min and I finished n about 56:30ish. 

All in all a great course and nice wet conditions

Saturday...trotters and spinning

This morning felt absolutely friggin freezing! Off to trotters for a run to Avoca. Got about 11.5km done by going the wrong way. Shin was good but felt tight as with the calf. Ran pretty easy as I'm doing the Sydney trail race tomorrow.

After trotters I went a done a double cycle class the some strength work. Then it was a relaxing arvo sipping on a few beers :-)

Shortest day of the yr......does that mean it's almost Summer?? (I wish!)

After working until 9:30pm last night I was happy to have a sleep in and get my butt out of bed a little after 8am.
Got an easy 47min 10km down in Umina. Shin was pretty good. Slightly sore and uncomfortable at the start then just felt tight.
Then time for a 2km swim then later made my way to the gym for some strength work.

Thursday 15k

15.2km to be exact. 1hr11min10sec or 4:40/km pace. Bensville to rip bridge and back.
Started off pretty slow then just picked it up because I felt ok. Once again my right shin was painful at the start but after 5-10min was fine. Tight but fine.

Wednesday...cycle class, run, balance...is that a triathlon?

Like the headline say's......I started with a cycle class then a 10km run on the treadmill then straight to bodybalance. For the first time in about 6 weeks my shin felt good :-)

Tuesday.....swimming....sneezing....active recovery

No running today. Just feel like I need a few days rest. Right butt and left peroneals haven't quite been the same since glowworm and the trouble I've been having with the right one is about the same as it's been for the last 6 or 7 weeks.

So today I head to the pool and swim 3km. Taking my time and enjoying it. Took around 70min. Then for the next 20min I sneeze. Then later out of the blue I go through another 15min of sneezing. Sneezing is something that while you are trying to drive is quite dangerous. Maybe worse than drink driving. On that note I need to find a tissue

TOUGH = Glow Worm Marathon weekend.......

I'm not too sure how to put this race weekend into words. It's a race I think you are best living the whole atmosphere and camping with everyone else the night before. I think those who choose to stay elsewhere missed out on what makes this event so great.

If you love running hills you will love this race, if you love climbing cliffs you will love this race, if you love amazing views you will love this race, if you love running down hills you will love this race, if you love running down cliffs you will love this race, if you love technical uphill and downhill then you will love this race, if you love running fire trails, single trails, glow worm tunnels you will love this race!

So for me it started getting to Newnes about 4pm. I was hoping to get there about 2ish but got away a bit later than I hoped for. Straight away I put up my tent then have a look around. It wasn't long before the sun went down and the cold came up. I was ready for this cold and had layers of clothes ready to keep me warm.
The rest of the night was chatting to some people I haven't seen for a while, chatting to a couple of other trotters who made the journey, drinking a few beers, eating some food and listening to the band they had playing. Went to bed all rugged up and by 10pm I was crashed out.

Sunday morning I wake early and get out of the tent. I look up in the sky and see so many stars. It was quite magical. It looked so different than the Central Coast. Not sure why but it was pretty amazing!
Soon the sun is up and the next thing we are getting ready to race this thing.

At 8am we head off. a couple of km's in and I notice the cold air is making it hard for me to breathe. Next thing we run up some stairs and make our way up the first hill. I try to keep with the people I'm running with but am just having too much trouble breathing so I slow down.
Next thing we hit our next hill/mtn/cliff. Not too sure but I think "cliff" would be best to describe this thing. I mean there is a rope there to help you climb up part of it. This cliff just keeps going and going and going and going. I'm also able to get my breathing back under control as we climb as the pace is now really slow. I have no idea how long or how far we climbed that cliff for but it seemed like eternity!
Ok so once at the top we get to do an out back section of about 100m over a few rocks. The view from here was just outstanding! It was enough to make me stop running and take it in for about 10seconds and in a race that's a long time. Next thing we start to make our way down another hill for quite a few km's. There are about 4 of us running this section together and soon I see the front runners heading back.
Once down the bottom we turn around and start to make our way back up to the place with the amazing views. I manage to run quite a bit of those hills then it's down, down, down the cliff.

2hrs15min I'm back at the start and that means i'm half way there. Cool I'm now thinking I may finish this thing in about 4hrs15min but that soon changed.

We make our way across a river that's about ankle deep but cold enough to numb my feet for the rest of the run.

A few more km's later still feeling ok but heavy in the legs we go up some stairs. This was the point that wrecked me! Calves, hamstrings and adductors all cramped up and left my legs so lactic I had trouble moving them. I somehow manage to shuffle/walk to the Glow worm tunnel getting passed now by the half marathon runners with Mark Lee flying past me to the other elite runners to the larger types. grrrrrr c'mon legs work!!!!!!

Get to the tunnel which we have to walk through then it wasn't long and we were heading down hill for the rest of the race. This is where I came back to life and was now passing quite a few runners that got me earlier.

After 4hrs35min I finally finish walk over to my tent, change out of my running clothes, grab beer, walk back to the finish, lie down on a towel and think what an amazing event this is!

Sat...trotters Enzo's run

Not much to say here but we ran every hill in Terrigal/Wamberal and must have covered about 15km I reckon. I ran with Gary Pickering for most of it.
Ran about 2km beforehand to warm up my leg

Friday.. a recovery day

No running today. Decided to give my leg a bit of rest and sleep in. Pretty much worked then went and got myself a massage. It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be so I guess that's a good sign.

Thursday

14km this morning. I head out the door with compression (well long compression tights) on my lower leg and can still feel pain there. More of an ache than anything. Kinda travels from midway along my leg and sometimes I feel it more near the knee and other times down lower. After about 2km I stop and move my tights off my lower leg by pulling them up to my knee. Fells better so I run about another 1km to test it out and notice the ache is slightly better but that could be because it's been warmed up so I pull my tights back down and carry on and this time notice the ache has come back slowly. GOD ALL I WANT TO DO IS FUCKING RUN AND NOT PLAY AOUND WITH MY FUCKING CLOTHING.....I'm thinking in my head!  Hip/glute nerve pain all good so that put a smile on my face.

Anyway I continue with my run and as normal I notice it gets better the longer I go and doesn't seem to get any worse. I notice it stays achy all day though
So I'll keep on going get this Glow Worm marathon out of the way this Sunday then may take a week off to recover.

Tomorrow might be a rest day (maybe)

Wednesday easy run

Up in Newcastle this morning and ran a comfortable  57min 12km from Carrington to Nobby's beach and back. Back/glute was sore for the first min then came good and calf was pretty good on the first half but on the way back my calf felt mega tight! Felt like I had a small cork in it. Could still run ok and was fine when I finished.
Tonight I spent quite a bit of time on the foam roller

Tues...speed run, easy run rehab and swimming

So it seems I do have peroneus longus pain on the right leg. Always seems to be something.
Not stopping me from training though...well not yet anyway. I'm hoping it will be like a lot of injuries I get where I can manage it and keep my training up.

So today I got up and 15min later at 5:30am I'm out the door and off running. After the first few steps I notice pain straight away so I stop access the situation then get back into it. Only quite sore for the first few steps then feels ok. I do know it's there through the whole run but seems to be manageable.

So this mornings run I do 8 or 9 4min hard with 1min recovery on a 11km circuit. Stopped a couple of times just to stretch out my hip and quickly massage my peroneus and calf.

A little bit later I have physio but do my second run just before. 10km in 47min. I then explain where I'm feeling the discomfort.

Next stop after physio is off to get acupuncture done. 10-15 needles stuck in my peroneals, butt and back. I notice the difference straight away.

Next stop I'm off for a 2km swim then its off for food and now here I am :-)  

Sunday 43km of around the Bay

Had a nice sleep in and didn't wake up until 7am. I was pretty tired from yesterday.
My peroneus longus pain was only there slightly so I wore my compression socks.

Decided to run from home and do around the bay plus a bit extra to make it over the marathon distance. The more I got into the run the less pain I was getting. I just ran a moderate pace after the first 3km. The concrete from East Gosford to WoyWoy wasn't pleasant.

Anyway I pulled up pretty good. Took a water bottle with me and 2 gels

After the run I went and got a massage. Felt great after that

So 43km in 3hrs21min. About 4:41/km pace

Saturday....Frosty Canberra

Up and out running at 5:30am. It was about -3deg and the one thing I didn't bring because I couldn't find them were my gloves! So I grab some socks and decide to use them.

Even though the weather was cold there was a magic feeling in the air. Crisp and icy. Great weather for running.

Just did the 15.5km loop around Lake Burley Griffin.

Rest of the day was massaging from 8:45am to 7pm then driving home. Got home just after 11pm

Friday. Driving, working and running

It's crazy how much you can fit into a few days. Friday started off with me getting up at about 3am and was out driving on my way to Canberra by 3:25am. I get to Mittagong and I stop to do a 10k run at about 5:30am. Back about 48min later and continue to drive to Canberra. I get there and get straight to work and finish about 2pm so I then go for another 5k easy. Leg was pretty good. I can feel the side of the calf but seems to get better the more I run

Rest of the day was spending it with my girls at the Movies

Thurs 6th June....nerve pain coming and going...ohh and I can't breathe

Off for an early morning 17.5km run from Terrigal to Forries and back. Pretty much doing the Waterslide run. First few steps into it and glute painful from the nerve pain but soon settles. About 2km in I find I'm struggling to get any oxygen in. I really struggled. Wasn't wheezy but couldn't breathe properly.
Anyway so what do I do? I decide after 24min to do intervals. 3min hard with a 1min recovery and 5 of them. Hard was an understatement. Funny thing is as soon as I put in hard efforts all my nerve pain totally vanished.
Once I got the intervals done my pain came back but only slightly.

1hr24min or 4:48/km pace.

 

Wednesday 5/6 run and cycle

Wake up to my alarm at 6am and decide to reset the silly thing for 6:15am. 15min later it goes off again. Damn. Ok I can lie in bed and stay nice and warm or get my butt up and start my day. I choose the latter and get up.
By 7am i'm at Terrigal and off for a 10k. 48min45sec later I'm back Nerve pain there but much better running back.
Next stop was the gym where I got a double cycle class in.

So thats it for today

Tuesday a run and a swim

Up feeling really tired for a 6am 11km run done in just over 55min. Nerve pain was showing me it's still there but was fine to run on. It was radiating down to my calf but mostly came on after about 4km in.

Work was next then off to the pool to do a 30min swim. Lost count of how many laps because midway through they decided to change the 50m pool to a 25m pool so I just kept on swimming along in my own world for 30min. Back, leg, butt and all the other signs of nerve pain was settled slightly after the swim. It was then home for more work then a letric soda crystal bath where I feel asleep for about 45min.

it's cool it's only nerve pain

So off to physio and it looks like the pain on my right butt/hamstring is nerve related from my L5/S1 disc bulge. So with 5 stretches to focus on here's hoping it speeds up the recovery. In the mean time I'll keep running at this stage as it doesn't seem to bother me too much as long as I don't run too fast.

No running today just a recovery from the run yesterday. Woke up tired and some discomfort in my leg. Got better as the day went on

A very wet playground...Wakefield to Congewai with the Trotters!

Have to be at West Gosford by 6am to get the Trotters bus. Ok...no big deal....alarm goes off just after 4am and I spring out of bed....ok I set the alarm to go off 20min later then I slowly get my creaking muscles out of bed. After a shower I kinda feel pretty good for 4:30am on a Sunday morning.

On my way to West Gosford and a stop at Maccas for coffee I'm ready and standing in some light rain with a few others.

About 7 of us got off to do the 40km section and the rest were off to do the 30km section. I have no idea what time we set off running but off we go. I'm running with Ian for 20 or 30min and we are discussing how great the run will be if the weather stays how it is (light drizzle) then somewhere I lost him behind me in the fog. The first 10km has quite a lot of hills and with the rain lots and lots and lots of slippery clay where I think I spent more time sliding than running.

The next section was where the 30k runners started and I got there in 54min and up the hill to the communication tower I head. I ran most of this except for the almost vertical bits then I'm on the stairs where I see some walkers heading towards me and one wanted to chat to me about TNF race 2 weeks ago. So we are chatting away for a bit over 5min and I tell him I might get going again. He tells me the 30k runners were about 20min ahead. Cool I might catch them. Once up the top I find it easy going to Heatons Gap. No use looking at the lookout because of the fog so I head down to the jungle section. I love this part and after a while I catch up to Les, Deirde, Lynne and Wayne then just ahead a new guy (forgot his name) the up to the Hugging pole. Thats a nasty steep climb which I manage to walk run it. I hug the pole and off I go again. Into the real jungle I loose track of the course. I can see the pink dots on the trees then they just vanish so I decide after 10min scratching my head I'll just run back until I see another runner. Then I see Ian and together we find our way through. Well it was Ian that found the way. We then run together until we get to checkpoint 1 where Robyn is waiting with all sorts of goodies. She tells us she has only seen Jo, Detta and Denise and they missed the jungle section and were about 15min ahead, so off we go again.

Ian dropped off pretty much straight away and it wasn't long before I catch up to them then I'm on my own for the rest of the run. I get to the bus in 4hrs40min and Graham Steele is there. He says he finished in 3hrs10min and I'm thinking thats a pretty time then I ask if he went through the jungle section but he missed it too.
17min later Ian and Denise came in and over the next few hours the rest made it.

Long day but an awesome day

How did my hip go? hmmm well I couldn't take off on any down hills and after about 3hrs my hamstring was getting quite achy so I just ran within myself

Tomorrow I'm off for physio and I'll see what Stan reckons

Sat a run and help move a house

Got up all ready for trotters. Leg butt hamstring all felt good. Go to trotters a bit early and go for a bit of a warm up to the haven did 6 laps then ran back. Did a few stretches while I was running those laps so I guess about 5km then the run was Woody's run. 13.8km to Erina through Erina fair to the base of Kincumber mountain then back to Terrigal. My leg started off great but if I tried to put any pace on the hamstring would get tight so I setteled for an easy running pace. Lot's of hills, road and trails. I did do an extra km because I couldn't remember a turn so went a way that I knew.

Then my next workout of the day was driving up to mum's and with my brothers help we moved pretty much the whole house.

So a good workout for a Saturday

Tomorrow it's a GNW run with the trotters doing about 40km in whats meant to be RAIN! Fun fun fun!!!