Injury Scare

Decided to take today off as my calf is playing up. Hopefully with a hot bath, good stretch and some ice it will be OK tomorrow. Given that tomorrow I will be spending a good 5 or 6 hours in the car, it will be interesting to see how it pulls up afterwards.

The last thing I need right now is a recurrence. Track season is just around the corner and enough time has been wasted already.

Fingers crossed.

Scorpions & Track Sessions

Decided to have a clean up around the backyard yesterday and in the space of an hour found 5 Scorpions, all of which were about 3 - 4 cms long. I had a quick look on the net and discovered that while they give a nasty sting they are not poisonous. Thank f#@* for that!!!! The little buggas are everywhere around here, and any that venture to close to me can expect to die very quickly.

Headed to the track in the afternoon to do a session and rolled out 6 x 200m with 200 jog recovery. Felt pretty good throughout and felt I could have knocked over a few more. Average time was 34s which was about what I expected. Pretty soon I expect to be doing this session in 27s but its early days yet.

I ran into Kim Gillard at the track. He has had the last 8 weeks off with a Groin injury and is hoping to start back again this week. The plan is to catch up sometime this week for an easy run.

Pulled up well this morning with no soreness however I did have very heavy legs in my 20 minute run this arvo. I had planned to do 30 minutes but cut it short. Still, consistency is the key and running every day is a good start.

Off to the Track

Cruised around the Golf Course tonight after work and felt ok. Starting to add some undulations into my runs and so far have suffered no adverse affects. The GC isnt exactly hilly but its a start.

Plan on doing my first track session tomorrow. At this stage it will be 4 - 6 400's in around 72s wearing flats. Dont want to overdo it too early on, just let the body adapt gradually. When my legs get used to wearing flats again then I will work my way into spikes. Will be at least a couple of weeks before they make an appearance though.

Progress is good so far. Cant wait to get to the Tan Relays in a couple of weeks and see exactly where I am at form wise. Hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise.

Cheers

Tempo & Teething

After sitting on the car all day and travelling well over 300kms I laced up the shoes and headed out the door for my run.

25 minutes with the last 10 at a decent tempo. Felt pretty good when I picked it up but was starting to feel it by the end.

I will hit the track on the weekend and do a rep sesion and see how things go. Will be interesting to see how I pull up afterwards. Im not planning on doing anything silly just ticking the legs over at a faster rhythm.

Jacko is starting to learn more and more words every day. In the bath tonight he picked up the ducky and said "quack quack"..... well at least thats what it sounded like!!! Then again maybe it was his way of saying that this new tooth thats coming thru is really giving me the shits. Dont know what the duck had to do with that though.

I booked flights tonight to head back to Melbourne to run the Tan Relays. I was starting to feel a bit guilty that I havent been running for Western Aths as much as I had hoped. Then again, flights arent always cheap and when they are it seems that I get in too late and miss out. At least this time I'm in, albeit $200 lighter in the pocket. No point being the richest dude in the cemetary right???

Cheers

Fathers Day

The day started pretty well with a Darrel Lea Dads Bag that Jacko bought me. After polishing off the chocolate coated almonds prior to breakfast it was time to have something a little more substantial..........bacon & eggs YUMMO.

We had lunch with Robyns family and then spent the arvo watching DVD's. American Pie The Naked Mile. Come on, most of us have done a "nudie run" at some stage of our lives!!!!

I ran for 30 minutes today (clothed) and felt pretty good. I actually considered going further which is a good sign but given the last few weeks I resisted the temptation.

Things are looking good on the running side of things, everyday has seen an improvement. The calf no longer is a consideration but that doesnt mean that I will neglect what needs to be done to ensure it doesnt happen again.

Bring on Track Season.

Long Week

My first week back running and already 2 days off. Fortunately, they were due to work commitments and not soreness. Start in the morning darkness and finishing after dark that night really doesnt help your training. That, and the fact that work is really giving me the shits at the moment.

The company I work for recently bought out a major competitor in the Tasmanian market. However, the management of that company have now become the management of ours!!! How does that work. Morale is so low at the moment its not funny. People are leaving left right and centre, and those remaining couldnt give a shit about anything. They just rock up and get paid. Us poor Reps are out their working our butts off and getting no back up from our peers. Warehouse staff are leaving things off orders and customers arent happy. Of course, when a customer has a problem who do they take it out on??????? The Rep. I rang our Warehouse Manager earlier this week about an issue I had and his first response was "So! What do you want me to do about it?" Great attitude that one. For a start you can organise for the stock to be delivered as requested and then speak to the person who f@#*ed up and make sure it doesnt happen again. Simple really.

Now that I have that off my chest, I do feel somewhat better!!!!!

Over and Out.

AW

Long Time No Blog

Yeah, I know, its been a while since i sat down to right anything on here. Reason is my Computer has been playing up and an Internet connection has been near on impossible. I now have a new Computer and things are back to normal.

Not much running again over the last 4 weeks due to a re occurance of my calf injury. I was in Hobart earlier this month for the State XC Champs and didnt even make the start line. I manage to reinjure myself the day before and as a result have had another 4 weeks off.

I went and saw a different Physio this time around (someone who is actually a runner himself) and he diagnosed the problem as being nerve related. So, after some treatment and shit loads of lower back and hamstring stretching and various exercises I am good to go.

I have started running again this week and so far so good.

Hopefully with a slow build up and some patience (something I have been known to lack) I will be in decent shape come Track Season.

I was hoping to run a quick 5km at the Tas 5km Road Champs on the 16/9 but thats now out of the question. So is breaking 32 minutes at the Burnie Ten.

As for breaking 9 minutes at Zatopek in the Steeple........... stay tuned.

Some interesting viewing at the World Champs. Can anyone tell me what Benita Johnson is thinking???? She said after her race that she was feeling "very good" when she fell. Why the hell was she at the back of the pack then? Any decent cyclist will tell you that if you want to stay out of trouble you need to be in the first 1/3 of the pack as most crashes happen towards the middle and affect those behind (I should know, I have the scars on my chin from a Broken Jaw that I received in a bike race). She is supposedly a World Class athlete yet placed herself in a position which was never going to do her any favours. Even if she hadnt fallen, when the pace picked up she would have been 20 metres behind before she even started to chase. When was the last time you saw Buster Mottram position himself like that?

Also, can someone get Youcef Abdi some training wheels please?

Cheers