Sunday, June 28, 2009

All the hard work is done

Taper week - 65k@4:20

Monday 10.1k@4:10 - fairly consistent effort - felt great after my week off
Tues 10.2k@ 3:51 - 5k tempo 4:06/3:53/3:46/3:44/3:44 - 19:19
1min break then 2k 3:42/3:38
1min break then 1k 3:38
1min break then 2k home 4:20/3:57
This felt surprisingly controlled

Wed 10.8k@4:09 - didnt feel great - took a little walk at half way
Thurs off
Fri 7.8k@4:24 - easy
Sat10.3k@4:24 - easy
Sun 16k@4:47 - gentle run in the breezy conditions with Homo and Clown - resisted the temptation to farther or faster

So... light runs <10k Tues,Wed,Fri this week.
The plan on Sunday is out in 88:XX and take things from there

Rob, Henry and I will be having a pasta dinner Friday probably at Valdarno in Dalkeith at 7pm - if anyone wants to come and shoot the breeze, let me know.

Good luck all with the last taper week.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Swine Flu Part 2

I made a comments to Clown last week about the rituals involved pre marathon - Friday night Carb dinner with other runners, entering the day before at Runners World, dropping off my self prepared drinks, race morning breakfast etc.

The one I forgot about was my pre Marathon virus, which has happened every Perth Marathon, somewhere between 3 and 1 week out. This one came on Tuesday, and was complicated by my contact with Swine Flu - such that on wednesday when I developed fevers and muscle aches, I had to have swabs and be quarantined. I don't think I had swine flu ('novel H1N1' to be politically correct) but advice from the health dept said I needed to stay away from work. So I started my Tamiflu and stayed at home, eating and watching DVDs for 3 days. Guess I'll find out this week if I did or not.

Running wise I played it safe - 12k@4:10s on Tues then no running whilst sick. Feeling better this morning I headed out for 12k@4:25 with Rob and cruised, felt energised by the run after only one run in the preceding week. I really wanted to head out for a second this afternoon but decided to play it safe.

My understanding is that I should have lost minimal performance with this time off (?0.6% or one minute over the marathon!). This week will see running 5 or 6 days with shortish sessions with plenty of time at MP and tempo pace (total 60k). The good news is that my achilles and hamstring tendonitis is much improved.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Swine Flu!

Swine flu scare this week proved to be nothing to be concerned about (perhaps like the 'pandemic' itself) I tested some patients on Monday and was called later by the lab to say they came back positive for swine flu - luckily I had been wearing a mask when I plunged a swab into the deep recesses of their noses and throats.

On the running front - a good week. 99.3k@4:17

Monday 8.4k@4:39 - recovery
Tuesday 20.1k@4:01 - this was planned as a MP run. After last weeks 4:21 pace I decided to start faster than my usual 4:40s. On a perfect night I found myself in the zone and flying. At 15k I encountered Homo running the other way and as I stopped and we chatted I became aware of just how well I was going. I immediately picked up where I left off and powered home. It felt effortless at the time, but subsequently I developed a niggle in the left achilles which stayed all week

Wed 8.5k@4:24 - recovery
Thurs rest
Fri 11.3k@4:07 - did 2x1.5k intervals at 3:35 pace, but felt hampered by the achilles
Sat 11.95k@4:13
Sun 39k@4:24 - easy 8k before meeting Rob then we ran together about 20k at 4:20s or so. Pushed a couple of km at MP and then 2k 34-36k @4:05s then back to average pace for the last couple.

After my Canberra debacle I'm keeping expectations in check. This week 85k similar pace.

YTD 1999k@4:32

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Back in the saddle

So I'd pre-empted the pod's advice and ran anyway this week

105km@4:24

Monday as previously documented the 3k of race@3:39. After coming home I ran down to Mosman Park easy 10k@4:37

Tuesday 12.3k@4:22 - MP for 10k of this (2k warmup)

Wed 20k@4:20 - MP except for a section of running into galeforce winds - tempo effort, slow pace. The only plus was that the cyclists seem worse affected than me and I passed a couple of them

Thurs rest
Fri 12k@4:17 - MP
Sat13.7k@4:20 - MP after 2k warmup

Sunday 34.5k@4:30 - tough start after a cousin's 21st Sat night- little sleep and a little nauseous. No Rob to push me along so I headed down to Lake Monger to give me a target of sdome type. Saw Rob there and as we warmed up and chatted he missed the start - my bad! Running back I hit a second wind and ran the last 10k in 43 min, with the last 5k@4:12.

So it was largely MP running this week, and a bit of a confidence booster - my first 100k+ since early March. One more similar week before starting to reduce. Foot feels fine

Had my running shoe bargain of the year this weekend. Went down to Rebel Sport in Claremont and on the clearance table they had a pair of DS Trainer 13's in my size for $29.99 - the tag was labelled Blackhawk but I checked with the salesguy and he said the price stood - bargain!

Friday, June 05, 2009

No stress, I'm in my cubist period!

No, I'm not Picasso, but I am happy

Saw Darryn S (podiatrist) today re the foot and he told me he's 100% sure it's not a stress fracture. It's a cuboid subluxation syndrome , brought on by that high mileage week and probably too much running on the left camber road to rest my medial ankle sprain.

So I got some mobilisation massage and strapping and I'm free to keep running on it! Yay!

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

NEPAL 2009


Enchanted by the scenery, clean mountain air and gentle manner of the Buddhist Sherpas in 2007, I'm planning on heading back to Nepal this year.

This time I'm taking my father, hopefully my brother-in-law who went last time, and anyone else who might be interested.

The options are:

1.Everest Base Camp - 20 day trip, 15 day trek, 5545m high point - the classic trek and the same one as we did last time - I'd be happy to do the same again.

2. Annapurna Circuit - 24 day trip, 18 day trek, 5416m high point - said to be more scenic than Everest but with less prestige.

3 Everest Circuit - 25 day trip, 20 day trek - Base Camp trek plus over ChoLa pass and Gokyo Lakes

I'll do any (like the sound of #3), but time availability may be a limit for some. The planned time would be starting late october/early november.

Clown I can forward you the World Expeditions Book if you're still interested. The everest base camp treks fill up reasonably early, there are places left on the departing 2/11 and 16/11 treks. Annapurn has spots departing 29/10, 5/11. Everest circuit 4/11.

There are great entry level mountaineering trips, and trips to the more isolated Tibetan and Bhutan Himalayas that I'd love to do in the future, but this year these somewhat easier ones are on the cards!

Monday, June 01, 2009

Glass Half Full

I was definitely in the half empty camp the last two days, but a beautiful day today can only make me optimistic

The week started well, after my good Sunday run last week. The ankle was barely an issue and I started running a little on grass and less even surfaces

Mon 10.1k@ 4:35 recovery
Tues am 9k @ 4:25 with 3.5k tempo 4:00s
Tues pm 5x1k intervals 3:29/3:33/3:33/3:33/3:30 - 60sec walk recov, 2.25kw/up, 2k w/down

Wed 11.5k@4:08 - 6.5k then 2.5k@tempo 4:00 - 60sec between
Thurs 7.5k@4:37 recovery
Fri 10.2k@4:28

So at this point I had run 110k in the past 7 days with some good quality sessions thrown in
With 300m to go on Fri am I developed a sudden pain in my left lateral midfoot, such that I couldn't run. The rest of the day I was barely able to walk - couldnt transition from heel to forefoot and push off. The pain and tenderness was initially diffuse ,but since has localised to the cuboid bone and the base of the 5th metatarsal, which is where peroneus muscles insert.

Hopefully I have peroneus tendonitis, as the alternative, a stress fracture of the 5th MT, doesn't bear thinking about. i've since read that peroneal tendinitis often occurs in the context of recovery from sprained ankles - assumedly I've changed my gait to protect my ankle, and strained the other side of the foot in the process

From what I've read I should take a week off then gradually restart running. But that was never going to happen. I took Sat off, than tried a little jog Sunday am - lasting about 5k bafore stopping with the pain.

Today, I decided again against my better judgement, to go down to the Lake Gwelup funrun. Our practice is just down the road and were a sponsor. Bob&Tiffany from TBL were there as well, and I wasn't going to miss my chance to see real B grade celebrities in the flesh.

The run was one or two laps of the lake - 3k or 6k. Biscuitman was there, looking fit. We took off in a crowd of little kids and I got a bit caught up at the start. Coming up to the 3k in 11min flat just ahead of biscuitman, I decided the ache, although bearable, wasn't a good sign and I pulled out there ( I was also buggered). Perhaps I should have gone on because Biscuitman ran a great 2nd place in about 23:30 and the next runner was some way behind him, so I could probably have held onto third.

Having made it through the 3k, now with the foot up and iced, I'm a bit more optimistic. I'll probably get an XRay tomorrow just to exclude a fracture (as much as an XRay can), and then try running 5x10k or so during the week. I've got a feeling it wont be too bad, the fact it came on so suddenly makes me think it was an acute tear/strain, and thus should go quite quickly.

At least I have another injury to add to my collection - it makes a great difference when a patient comes in with a sports injury if I can say 'I've had that' - although I still advise them to be more conservative in their recovery than I am with myself.