Clear skies ahead

I’m tired of walking in the rain- with clear skies ahead

Out of the darkness open-eyed with clear skies ahead.

Spy v Spy

I ran and finished the toughest possible 10km race last weekend. Wasn’t very happy with my time or my placing…..but the fact that I ran it all considering where I’ve come from the last few years is incredible.

There is a sense of unreality about all this. Like I have woken up into a dream that I never dreamed would come my away again.

Until June last year I never dreamed I would run again.

My battle with knee pain has been a long, long nightmare. However, without this nightmare, this running miracle might not have happened. Without the nightmare I might not have been forced to find answers for  my knee problems. Without the nightmare I wouldn’t have been forced to work so hard, to go to Sydney to see a doctor and physio who saved my knee.

Right now I am glad that the nightmare of knee pain happened. Yes that’s right, even when I could hardly walk, even when my foot felt like it was on fire, all the horrible set backs, the endless days of pain, every one of the countless hours of physio I have done. Glad it all happened! I am running! All the pain, all the frustration, all the hard work, was worth every minute to be able to run again.

RR Coffs Coast Fun Run

This is without question the toughest run I have done, period.

The race started near the Coffs Harbour Surf Life Saving Club. There was a combined 5km and 10km start.

The start and off to the beach every one sprints, onto a sandy path only one of two people wide. I get onto the beach and I’m pretty well placed. The young bloke that wins all these races shoots off in the wrong direction and has to double back.

We’re heading back onto the beach and I get a pat on the back. It’s a guy who I know who has been out injured with a back problem. I feel like I’m going allright.

1st km 4:26

The race continues across the grass and the around a cycle path and then along a stretch of beach. The real hard part is when the beach is washed by waves and I have to run in the water. I lift my legs high to wade and they are already heavy and tired.

The first lady runner goes cruising past. She’s an awesome runner, beats most of the men in the races she goes in.

2nd km 4:52

I hit the bicylce path and I hope to pick up my pace. I’m pretty well placed by now and feeling OK. My left achilles is twinging slightly.

3km 4:35.

Other runners take off and I can’t go with them. The race goes past the bowling the club and then hits the beach again.

4km 5:10

Now the rot is really starting to set in. The tide is still pretty much in, and there is little hard wet sand to run in.

5km 6:02!!!!!!!. the brakes are on in earnest .I go through the 5km in 25.04. Much slower than my easy/moderate training pace on grass and concrete surfaces.

So starts the longest 5km of my life.

6km 5:37. Back onto the sand. A couple of runners pass me, I manage to stay with them….

7km 5:58 over sand and the second water crossing

8km 5:10 and back onto the cycle path woo hoo!

9km 5:47. no no no please no more sand! The runners ahead of me are off as soon as I hit the sand.

10km 6:15. Oh dear! I hope this is the slowest km I ever do in a race.

I finish OA 16th in 53:16. A very strong lady half marathon runner and triathlete finishes strongly the second 5 km and beats me over the line.

I realise that she has something that I lack: endurance. I go alright on grass and concrete, but when the surface involves use of strength I don’t have it. YET!

Right now I’m and sore and sorry and have definately had a learning experience. I’m looking forward to my next race being on a fast even surface.

Sutho

Here’s a photo of me with a new Sutherland running singlet on that was kindly sent to me.

I did my best to look natural and smile, but failed miserably.

This morning I ran 8km in 42:41 (5:37, 5:14, 5:10, 5:15, 5:12, 5:20, 5:26, 5:28). It was an easy pace, but a hard run due to the heat and humidity. It was 29 degrees celsius and 70% humidity. The last 2 km I was crying out to stop. No injuries, so that’s the most important thing.

Not sure how I’ll go in the Coffs Coast Fun Run. If the conditions are like this morning then it will be hard.

I walked some of the course this afternoon. I think the conditions are much better near the coast. The tide was out and a nice north easterly was blowing. In the race this would be blowing at my back, and good hard sand would be easy to run on. The bike paths will be a chance to go a little bit faster, and at that time of the morning some of them will be shaded.

This place in the darkness

Is a little bit brigther tonight. The storm of of the last few weeks has passed. The things that were dragging me down were mainly in my mind. My life aint so bad.

 

Pastel Flower

I spent a long day in the field today, and the left achilles has settled down. When I hurt this achilles after my last run, I hit overload, and just got to the point where I thought this was too much. I’d just reached the stage where  the achilles on my right hand side was pain free, and the very next run I do the achilles on my left hand side fires up. I was really stressed by having to limp aprund for two days on a leg that has not given me any trouble before. Too much my mind said, it was making me feel dizzy, angry, so frustrated.  On top of that my groin, upper quad was so stiff and sore I couldn’t stretch my quads

How do you win?

I’ve had niggle after niggle after niggle. I deserve some luck with all the injuries I’ve had to put up with for years.  

I was thinking that the Coffs Coast Fun Run might’ve been a no go for me, but tonight I can do heel drops without pain on both legs. So I might be ready to rumble on Monday.

46. That’s my age. I’m not young anymore. Therefore I have to be more careful with the intensity of my runs. More slow long runs are the order of the day. Lots of cross training. Pushing hard on runs will lead to injury. I think I should do all my training between 4:50/5:20 pace. I’ll leave the sub 4:20s to races. I can do speed work by pool jogging, no impact.

There’s a knife edge you balance on with running, too hard and you tip over into the injury blues. It’s usually when I’ve felt that I’m going great that the injury devil jumps up and bites me. So easy to get carried away, go too hard, and crash and burn.

Going for Gold

10km 46:45 (4:47, 4:40, 4:37, 4:39, 4:46 (23.29), 4;39, 4:57, 4:45, 4:37, 4.20 (23.16).

My other achilles started to twinge after about three kilometres, my groin or upper thigh was also stiff. I think I pushed too hard today after the long run on Saturday.  

It was a lot cooler this morning about 20 degrees with much less humidity. The run was much more pleasant.

I was enjoying posting in the runners world master’s forum. I provided my new email address. I have not received the promised email to activate my account. I’ve sent emails to runners world, and I get a  form letter response saying that they can’t respond to each individual emal. Recently they changed over to  a new forum design. It seems that they are having problems with their mail server.

Another day another pool jog

A cooler morning and there were less people at the pool. No kids to dive bomb me. I enjoyed it.

I did a fifty minutes pool jog. Went to sleep this afternoon was very, very tired.

Long Run

I did a ten mile run in 88:37 around the Coffs Creek Trail. It was the wrong course to do this on. There was heavy rain this morning, and there was standing water on the trail. I started easily, but just couldn’t get going.

Twice I rolled my ankle on tree roots. My achilles is fine afterwards however I am really stiff. When I was able to get onto the road my km times were more respectable.

I also had to stop for about a minute to play with the bezel on my Garmin. The rain actually changes the display on the Garmin. The droplets hit the bezel and change the display. I lost the stop watch and distance covered page.   I was annoyed with it. My ITB strap fell down below my knee as well. I had to stop and readjust it.

By the time I turned at 8km I wished I had run on the Hogbin Drive cycle path instead. It wasn’t an enjoyable run at all.

5:30, 5:39, 5:37, 5:25, 6:08 (bezel malfunction), 5:09, 5:16, 5:20 (a rude old man who wouldn’t make room for me on the boardwalk), 5:21, 5:21, 5:14, 5:31, 5:54, 5:49 (quagmired trail), 6:18, 5:47, 5:35.

Also the Garmin  was out again. When I returned to the point I started it told me I had another 170 mteres to go. The satellite reception is often poor on cloudy days. It will be interesting to see what it says on a sunny day.

All in all this is the furthest I have run since my return to running in July last year. It made me realise that I have a lot of work to do to build a base of endurance.

So my last two runs have sort of undermined my confidence in running fast. The conditions have done this to me, heat and humidity last Thursday and the rain and quagmired condition of the trail this morning.

I don’t know if this is going to get any better until summer finishes. I seem to go better in the cooler weather.

Woolgoolga Cross Country Bunch of Fives RR

This was the fourth in a series of five kilometre races, held around the cross country trails at Woolgoolga High School.

The race was held on a extremely hot afternoon, 28 degrees, 70% humidity. 

I suppose I have to report the good races with the bad races. Today was a bad race.

The race started and I tried to sprint but my legs felt heavy, they actually felt they where going to collapse from underneath me.  Woah! That’s scary I thought. Eventually I rolled into some sort of rythym.

The course looped around grass and then down bush paths. I haven’t run on bush paths since I hurt my achilles last October. I was gaining on the fifth placed male, and the first and second placed female.

The first kilometre was slow 4:19. The heat and humidty was quite hard to tolerate.

The second kilometre was 4:32. Slow as a wet week I told myself. It was a 2 lap course and I turned only a few seconds behind a father and daughter. The father has never beaten me in a race before. The daughter I have only finished in front of once. She’s an extremely good young runner.

3km 4:43

4km 5:09. Blimey thats slow, I thought.

5km 4:39

plus 200 metres 1:00 5m 32 pace.

These times were as slow as I was doing when I was only starting out last year. Maybe it was the heat, maybe I was off colour hence the heavy legs at the start.  

Time 24:23 for 5.18km according to my Garmin.

I was the sixth male to finish out of 13. Seventh out of about 20 runners. Everyone was suffering from the heat I think.

http://www.coolrunning.com.au/runningguide/wiki/index.php/Woolgoolga_Bunch_of_Fives_Race_4%2C_15/1/09

I feel much better about the race now. Another race under my belt, my achilles has recovered more quickly than it did after the last race, my quad is really firing. I am more determined than ever to train even harder and to see where my running revival can take me.

Busy Busy

More training

A 90 minute pool jog on Sunday

I did a very easy 8km run in 43:16 (5:48, 5:22, 5:13, 5:14, 5:26, 5:27, 5:27, 5:20) on Monday. My achilles felt pretty good during this run.

A 40 minute pool jog, with 20 minute faster intervals Tuesday. My achilles was pain free after this

Wednesday 40 minute cycle. 12.5km

My right knee was a little achy today.

I think I will be ready to rumble in Thursday night’s 5km race.

Tomorrow is race day.

Unplanned Speed Work

This morning I ran a 10km along the Hogbin Drive cycle track. It started as a sort of steady state/tempo run according to the McMillan running calculator. I went through 5km in 24:01.

Approaching the roundabout at the university I was greeted by the criticisms of my value as human being by the passenger of a vehicle. I gave the passenger a brief token of my affection as I ran past. He was obviously offended by my display of kindness and alighted from the vehicle and proceeded to run after me, shouting more expletives,challenges, threats and abuse.

I changed up a gear. I looked at the Garmin and saw I was going 3:26km pace! The person dropped back, the cursing became fainter and stopped.  I did that kilometre in 4:18. The second 5km was 23:10. The 10km was 47:11. I hadn’t wanted to go quite that fast, but it is amazing what adrenalin can do to your speed. My achilles was twinging somewhat.

47:11 (5:01, 4:47, 4:42, 4:49, 4:42, (24.01) 4:36, 4:47, 4:18, 4:47, 4:48 (23.10).

Second 5km was rather quicker than the first. I might have to choose another running course. I feel worried about returning to run along the cycleway again in case I run into similar trouble.