Mixed Blessings

It's been a mixed couple of weeks in the land of jog. Firstly school holidays happened and life gets thrown into complete and utter chaos. Between camping and working and then camping again there is not much routine. Mr gosh darned foot arch hurt so I decided to take 1 week off from jogging completely which unfortunatly co-incided with my favourite tracks being laid out in front of me like chocolate in front of a choco-holic. I could look but I couldn't do !! Sad poor me !! I did a sneeky little jog around the fences while we were camping but that was a really bad idea [I found out the hard way]. So then I resigned myself to having to sit on my bum for a week. I did go for sneeky walks but definatly not jogs. Now it is the end of week 2 almost and my foot for the most part is really good. I've been around the Goosies and done some bush walking and it [naughty foot] feels pretty good [all done in my old faithful 'Brooks'. So in review - I officially don't like 'Asics' shoes !!!! -It's not a good idea to ignore a sore foot, - it's REALLY not a good idea to go for a long run in new stupid shoes and ignore a sore foot !! - and I'm not able to sit still for long.


Sooo......what do you do with a new pair of stupid shoes that you paid great money for, for comfort and softness and your feet hate with a passion - well - I took out the super soft cushiony inner soles and hardened them up a bit. I've been for a walk and they are heaps better, so tomorrow I'll take said stupid shoes for a 5km jog and see how they are. If they are heaps better then I'll ditch the stupid inner soles and leave my shoes as is, if not then it's back to the drawing board. [or the shoe shop]

Anudda Week Down

I'm not sure if I would call this week a successful week but after last saturdays long run my foot hurt. Normally rest and staying off the foot is the right thing to do, but oh no, not for me !! Sunday I mowed lawns and walked in the bush for a couple of hours then Monday 10 kms hills and the foot was niggly then a walk Monday night and shopping all day, oh yeah and 20 km bike ride, should I stop there - YIP - did I stop there - NOP - instead I got up on Tuesday morning and went for a 5 km run then did 10 x 400m sprints in barefeet on the footy fields then it was about 3 kms home. It felt great but my calves were not as keen on the whole process as I had thought, perhaps only 5 x 400m sprints next time, 20 km bike ride then I hobbled to work for the day. The end?? No way, we went for a beach walk that night and then Wednesday I had to stay in bed as I couldn't get down the steps to the loo. Major problem !! Did I stop there though?? Nah no point. We went for another beach walk Wednesday night but I stayed in bed Thursday and Friday morning. I'm not proud of this but hey it's what happened. Oh yeah it wasn't only my foot it was my bloody calf muscles they ached !!!!! BAD!!!! Bloody sprints!!!! So here it is Saturday morning again and I headed out for my 2 hr run. Today I headed out to the harbour to run out to East Point and sailed along beautifully until I turned to head for home and realised, too late, that maybe sand or unstable ground may not have been a wise choice for this weeks long run. Anyhoo, middle of somewhere, no phone, no people and 8 kms from home there's nothin else to do but one foot in front of the other, so that's what I did. By the end of the sandy area my foot was niggly and my calf was starting to really be noticable. I perserved until I hit the Goosies when I just couldn't run any further so I walked - well that was until I spotted some plovers so I thought if I jogged on VERY reluctant legs the plovers may leave me alone out of sheer pity for seeing something that resembled human but moved like a drunken walrus. Honestly the hunchback moved more gracefully than I did at this stage - well that was until I discovered that the plovers had no sense of humor or understanding for an ailing, pitiful shuffler whose body was very uncooperatively moving faster than it wanted to. I did my best Usain Bolt impersonation when I realised that the pretty plovers [not] were happily lining me up for their energetic swooping practice. My foot and calves stopped hurting really quick !!!!! And I got the best pace of the day happening. Sprints be damned I did better today swooped by plovers than I did on Tuesday when I tried to run fast but obviously I didn't have the right motivation back then. The olympic prodigy dreams faded as soon as my subconcious realised that it was safe and everything started to hurt again. Walking seemed like a really enjoyable activity at that stage and one I enjoyed all the way home [which fortunatly wasn't far]. So here I am now all finished and I won't go so far as to say recovered but my left foot aches a bit and my right calf hurts so I think I'll slink off to the taxi, sit on my bum for the rest of the day and if my bum starts to hurt I'm gunna visit Mum at work and get spoon fed by someone else, sit in the corner and dribble until I stop hurting. Sounds like a pretty good option to me at this stage.

17.5kms

Well today was my first truly LONG run. I had a goal of 20 kms in 2 hours at 6 mins/km = 10 kms/hr hence the 2 hr goal. So I put on the camelbak and stuffed a couple of gels in my pocket and off I chuffed at 5:30 am. I sat on 6 mins/km and had sips of plasticky water every 10 mins and the first gel at 1/2 hr and BLECK it didn't go down well. I had tried a gel on a bike ride after a 10 km run and stomached it okay but apparently not so good when I'm jogging. BLECK!! It was thick, sticky and hard to keep down. I stayed at 6 min/kms which was a really great pace as I wasn't puffing but between the water and the gel things were getting ordinary. I finally stopped for a bit of a walk and went into Whitsunday Anglican School for a drink of yummy water and WOW that was super reviving. I set off a very polite alarm that reminded me I was on private property. Anyway I had a belly full of lovely cool fresh water not plasticky, warm water so I was off again sticking to the game plan of 6 min/km and went on to Fitzgerald School for another drink of yummy cool fresh water, then, feeling revived once again I set the course for home via the Goosies. With a couple of walks and water stops I ended up with 17.5km in 2 hours. Not quite what the game plan was but I'm happy. Definatly plan on improving. When I got home I sat in a cold bath for about 10 mins to cool the leg muscles and hopefully halt any lactic acid build up and , hey, it worked. No sore legs.

Spin Cycle

Sounds cool huh?? Kinda like a washing machine and that's about what I looked like I'd been through after finishing 20km in 55 mins on the bike. It's pretty warm here today so I sweated LOTS. HMMM......love the bike.

Wired Fuzzy Brain Day

Well I gave today a miss for running - WHY ?? - I don't really know !?! Seemed like a good idea until I woke up properly and realised that my chance for a run was over for today :[ OMG Not happy with me but that's life. I reckon my brain is clogged with everyday mish mash and so I feel tired without having done anything really to be tired. Weird huh?? Any way yesterday was 10 km hills in 1:01:33. How amazingly precise is that!! Last week I bought a Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS watch that is the ABSOLUTE bees knees. It's not that I needed any help reading a watch or clock for times but distance was getting me pipped a bit and so far I'm surprised at how much further I am going as opposed to how far I thought I was going. So I seem to have mastered slow trotting, maybe it's now time to up the ante a little - keep tuned I'll share my mad ideas over the next few weeks. - happy trottin y'all.

p.s. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves the first one is a scan of my brain and the second is my super dooper fabulously awesome newest and only trottin buddy. :]