Unexpected long run

The way I was limping after Friday night’s race wasn’t expecting to get in a run at all today.

I got in a 10 mile run in 92:03. 6:01, 5:30, 5:22, 5:18, 5:23, 5:31, 5:35, 5:47, 5:47, 5:48, 5:42, 5:55, 6:09, 6:06, 6:09, 6:00 

Wasn’t worried about pace, just concentrated on getting through pain free. My calf area was a bit stinging for a few km as I warmed up. The last 4 km at over 6 minutes/per km dented my pride a little bit, but I decided not to push. I guess it really shows my lack of endurance.

I was running out on a grassy field without any shade, so the heat takes its toll. I was extremely thirsty when I finished. I got a feeling of pleasant tiredness I remembered getting at the end of a long run in my other runnning life.

By the time I finished there was no pain at all. Just a stiffness and soreness. The pain was high up in the calf which doesn’t worry me as much as the achilles niggles I have been having.

So all in all happy with notching up another long run.

I think that I might try to get to Sydney in March and go on a long run at Lady Carrington Drive. How good will that be?

Big Ironbark Bongil Bongil

Extreme Ways

I had to close down everything
I had to close down my mind
Too many things caught me
Too much could make me blind
I’ve seen so much in so many places
So many heartaches, so many faces
So many dirty things
You couldn’t even believe

Moby Extreme Ways

Last night I didn’t sleep very well at all. I was so hyped after yesterdays run I couldn’t shut down. It wasn’t so much a runners high as a runners low. My mind was going a hundred miles an hour going over the events of the race before and after.

Today I went for an easy pool jog. The calf injury seems to be settling down as the day goes on. It is more of a tightness/stiffness in the calf rather than pain now.

The other thing is that I went shopping without the knee tape on with out any ill effect.

Three years on and I might actually beat this maltracking patella. I might be able to walk each day without my knee taped up. I’ll still have to wear to run and ride a bike.

Woolgoolga Bunch of Fives Track Race

This was the last race in a series of 5 races. The race is 12.5 laps arund a grass athletics track. The temperature was 83 degrees farenheit, bright and sunny, without a breath of wind stirring the trees around the picturesque Woolgoolga Sports ground.

I went into the race feeling niggle free and hopeful of a good race. The race started and I was up in the top 5 runners, feeling confident.

The first kilometre was 3:55.

Happy with that. I notice that I’m working hard, blowing heavily. I’m keeping up with some of the other runners.

Second kilometre 4:08. Slowing more than I would like.

Third kilometre 4:16. Ouch! there is some pain in my calf as I go to past a runner. So I back off a bit. I get lapped once and then twice by the first and second place getters who are running 18 & 19 minutes for 5km.

I think of my best time for 5km 15:55. And I have a lot of respect for the runner I once was in my previous running life. A shy kid with not a lot of confidence in himself.

“You were pretty fast young Quinkin.” I’d tell that kid if I could, to give him the boost of confidence he deserved.

Fourth kilometre 4:35. Slowing down more than I would like, and I don’t have the energy to chase the runners in front, I’m worrying more about someone catching from behind. Someone does, but it is only the third place getter lapping me.

Fifth kilometre 4:39. Disappointing. I go trough the 5km in 21:33. However, I’m not at the finishing line yet. I press the Garmin at the finish and I get a time of 22:47 for a distance covered of 5.29km.

I finish 8th male and 9th overall, out of 22.

Not very happy with the time of the way I faded in the last 2kms. I thought I was in better shape than that. Also I wonder about the discrepancy between the Garmin’s measurement of 5.3km for a 5km track race.  Is the Garmin that far out or is the track long?

As soon as I finish I start to limp on a sore calf/achilles. The pain seems to be right at the top of my achilles. The race really sets back my confidence a notch to two. I start to think I’m too old and past it to run fast like I did in my twenties, when just last week I was thinking that if I train consistently then I could run sub 4 minute kilometres regularly.

I wait for the prizes to be awarded for the place getters in the mens and ladies.

A lady ultra marathon runner asks me how my knee is. She’s a really nice person. She says that an athlete she knows with achilles/calf problems wears skins compression socks. Might give them a go. She tells me that her knee is sore and she is running a six hour race tomorrow. Amazing! I tell her that my knees OK, but my achilles/calf is sore. I think to myself I’ll be lucky to be running again in three days.

Thats the funny thing, because I have my knee tape, people ask me how it is. The thing is with my magic McConnell taping my knee doesn’t give me much trouble at all. In fact my knee is almost better. That makes all these calf and achilles problems I’m having even more annoying.

An 8km and a 16km run

On Friday I ran 8km in 42:41. I was hampered by my achilles tendon on the left hand side. This was extremely annoying, because I had thought that I wasn’t going to have any trouble before the run.

On Saturday I did a pool jog. I did about 50 minutes. I pool jog slowly from the deep end to the 1.8 metre mark, then I go fast from the 1.8km back to the deep end. It’s like a kilometre interval. I did five of these.

My achilles was still tender. I noticed it climbing down the steps into the pool. So I decided that I would not try to run again on land until Tuesday next week.

Come Saturday night my achilles felt much better. I really worked hard at the stretches and heel drops/calf raises. When I went to bed, I thought that I was on for an 8km run in the morning.

Sunday morning dawned bright and hot and humid like so many day in Coffs Harbour this summer. Driving to the park, I decided to see if I could run 16km. I started easily, no pain in the achilles, I sped up until about the fourth km.

I was just concentrating on being pain free. I didn’t get any tenderness in the tendon until after 8km, which I ran in 44 minutes. There was a few twinges from 9km to 12km, probably the discomfort was more in my calf. By then I’d really slowed down to over 6 minute kilometres. I think it was the heat and humidity that made even that pace seem harder than it was.

So I finished the ten miles in 94:48. Six minutes slower than my last 10 mile run a few weeks ago. Slow as a wet weak but I did it.

Now it’s Sunday night and my achilles doesn’t feel too bad. I feel better about my immediate running future than I did on Friday.

What I have really noticed in the last few days is that my VMO is finally starting to take over from my VL muscle when I’m not wearing tape. After three years I might be going to really beat this maltracking knee cap.

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.

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.

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.

10km

I’ve been busy training. Last night I did a 50 minute pool jog. This morning I did a 10km run.

Afterwards I did some calf raises and heel drops and my achilles felt great.

One of the lifeguards showed some interest in my aqua jogger. He said he used to be a triathlete, and had a knee reconstruction. I told him the aqua jogger was good for a cardio workout, but doesn’t help in quadricep building. I told him that knee taping really helped my knee rebuild my quads.

I guess I am a bit of success story with my knee. I’ve spoken to  many people with knee problems, even my new boss at work was a runner once, but hurt his knee in his early thirties.

I’ve become a bit of a local knee guru, wherever I go people ask me about my knee tape, and relate their knee pain stories to me. I wish I could give them the advice that could miraculously rescue themselves from knee pain like I have been able to do.

This morning I ran 10km along the Hogbin Drive cycle track. Lots and lots of cyclists, I was the only runner. One cyclist had a go at me, not sure what for? I asked them to get off their bike and run to see how easy it is.

I did 10km in 49:02 (5:09, 4:59, 4:54, 4:46, 4:48 (24:36), 4:57, 4:57, 4:50, 4:55, 4:50 (24:27).

I think you’d have to call this a tempo run. I’m not flat out by any means, but  do get puffed and I am pushing to get my kms down under 5 minutes. Perhaps I shouldn’t be pushing this hard all the time on training runs?

Weeding the Garden

Just spent an hour or so weeding the Garden. I did this without knee tape. I also walked around the shops without knee tape. This is after a 40 minute session on the exercise bike. The tape worked its way loose after 1o minutes. Awful Coffs Harbour humidity.

Conclusion, I am really winning the battle against the maltracking knee cap now. My VMO has more strength than the VL. This is a good thing!

My achilles has settled today, I think I will be up to an easy run tomorrow on grass.

I saw an advert in the local newspaper that there is a fun run on Australia Day 26th January in Coffs Harbour. There is  2, 5 and 10 km races. The 10km is the only one with prizes. I’ll probably race in the 10km. I’ve done a few 10kms runs in training but no races. I reckon it will be tough.

Sawtell Fun Run race report

The Sawtell Fun Run is run on New Year’s morning. It was well organised by the Sawtell Toormina Little Athletic Club. Thanks to all those volunteers who made the race so enjoyable.

A little bit of background. I competed in this race three years ago. I finished in 24 minutes 41. Then my knee cap went off track for three years.

The Race.

The race started in First Avenue Swatell outside the RSL club. I warmed up along the avenue. The temperature was quite warm and humid even for 9:00 am in the morning. I was worried about my lack of race fitness, having not raced a fast 5km since October last year.

I sprinted along the Avenue and was not far behind the leaders. A young gun runner was well out in front and another fit older runner was close behind. These two would battle out 1st and second. I went conservatively up the hill along first Avenue. People started to go past me up the hill including the first lady runner.

First kilometre 4:01

I overtook several of the younger runners who had gone out too fast. Some experienced runners went past me as well. A pack of runners had developed but I couldn’t keep up with them. I tried to conserve some energy because there was some tough parts of the course ahead.

I turned left into 18th avenue, then downhill and right into 16th avenue. This is a long hot stretch.

Second kilometre. 3:53. Wow! happy with that sub 4 minute km!

At this stage I just concentrated on rolling it out. It was HOT. Some kind neighbours sprayed water on me with a hose. I was running alone, and I could hear runners coming up behind me.

Third kilometre 4:19.

OK slowing down, I turn right back onto First avenue, back into town past the Sawtell Shops. Some people where calling out my name. Could’ve been people from work, I was too puffed to look.

The course went out of town, crossed a bridge and right into Bayldon Road. Was trying to save energy thinking of the hill at the end of Bayldon Road. It is a killer.

Fourth kilometre 4:36

Fifth kilometre 4:54 No way the Garmin has it wrong I reckon, I’m not going that SLOW.

In the finishing stretch now, downhill into an area shaded by trees. Into the gorunds of the Caravan Park. There is a bald headed fellow with an earing who I am gaining on. I see the Sawtell grassy reserve and the finish line but I am spent and can’t catch the guy ahead.

I finish the 5.5km in 22:52. One minute 50 ahead of my time three years ago. Equivalent to a 20:47 5km. Sub 20 minutes is around the corner.

I finish 20th out of 148 finishers. I finished 9th out of 33 in the over 35 age group. That group was strong.

All in all a satisfying run. I did slow down from kilometres 4 and 5. This could be due to my lack of race fitness.

A good start to 2009.

My running dream continues, for which I give thanks.

Maybe my Mum is watching down from heaven and helping to make this dream come true.