Cicada

Perhaps a Brown Bomber?

I’ve booked my holiday to Perth. Looking forward to being away from Coffs and seeing my Dad. Dad is another year older, and it is hard to watch how hard it is for him just to get through the day.

Dad is my link to home, and I have spent every Christmas of my life with him. I’m not about to change that this year.

Here’s me rego number for Athletic NSW.

Back from Perth

I have been back from my holiday for two days now. Now I am gearing up for the Sawtell Fun Run on New Year’s morning. Getting rather nervous at the prospect of red lining it in a 5.5km run. It will hurt,  and I haven’t done a fast race since last years.

I have run 23:31 and 23:48 in moderate intensity training runs. So I am quite fit, and should go much better then the 24:41 I did three years ago in the Sawtell Fun Run on very little training and with a knee cap that was just starting to sublux and really go off track.

My holiday in Perth was a happy sad one. I ran one day and went for a bushwalk the next, having fun with my new digital SLR camera taking macro photos of wildflowers.

Guinea Flower with tiny spider.

On the running side of things I did

4 x10km

5:25, 5:03, 5:16, 5:06, 5:27, 4:43, 4:53, 5:27, 5:23, 6:04 (53:24)

5:21, 5:13, 5:20, 5:10, 5:20, 4:41, 5:03, 5:24, 5:18, 5:16 (51:59)

5:15, 5:05, 5:02, 5:05, 5:34, 4:40, 4:56, 5:25, 5:27, 5:12 (51:42). The garmin made me run 70 metres further for 5km on this run.

5:03, 4:41, 4:52, 4:50, 5:09, 4:30, 4:44, 5:05, 5:20, 5:08 (49:24)       

2 X 8km

5:27, 5:03, 5:26, 5:18, 5:20, 5:32, 5:26, 5:32 (42:55)

4:57, 4:42, 4:52, 4:47, 4:34, 4:57, 5:13, 5:03 (39:02) 

The course I did in Kings Park was on concrete footpaths and along the grass of the ‘boardwalk’. There where three hills on the course that helped my fitness along nicely.  The first was a gradual incline between kilometres three to five, along the path that runs alongside Thomas Street. The next started from the bottom of the Poole Avenue and climbed up to May Drive.  And the last was the long gradual haul up the Boardwalk, across Lovekin Drive and up to the nature trail near the DNA tower. I was getting stronger on the uphills as the holiday went along, which is reflected in my times per kilometre.  One day there was a bicycle race on and I had to watch out crossing Lovekin Drive for the cyclists crossing my path.

http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/c/bgpa/pub/stories/community/memorial-map-large.gif

I had a good system going, walk about five minutes from the car park; stretch, then slowly roll into the run. Easy running until I felt I had warmed up. In all the runs I kept saying “roll it out” in synch with my breathing. I was not flat out on any run, but certainly was working it.

The fact that I ran as much as I did on this holiday is remarkeable given that at the same time last year I was in pain just walking around Kings Park. On Christmas Day I thought “Being able to run is the best christmas present ever.”

Pom Poms

On the sad side of my holiday was the fact that my father wasn’t well. One day he lacked the energy to put his shoes on to get out to the shops. He had a fall out of his bed one night and landed on his back, which was already badly bruised by a fall on a bus. They had to winch him back onto his bed. As I watched him on the bed sleeping I could see he was in pain lying on his back. Dad has a very bad cough, his lungs are not the best, he lost a lot of weight, he is in fact lighter than me at 76kgs. This is the first time in my life that Dad has weighed less than me.  Still he wanted to get out last minute shopping to get chocolates for the staff at the hostel where he is staying. This really knocked him around.

On the hugely positive side of my holiday was that on several occassions I walked around the city reasonably comfortably without the knee tape, just a ITB strap. Last year I could not do this. My knee is light years better. Also my achilles tendon gave me little trouble, just a few twinges in the mornings before I warmed up.

Several times my mind turned to negative thoughts about work  The most positive response to these negative thoughts was that I will work even harder.  I should also turn my thoughts to the possibility this year might bring in the area of my resurgent running career.  This is the inspirational postive side of my life. 

The fact is I AM working hard and have achieved extraordinary things with my return to running.  I have also taught myself to swim depsite a deep seated fear of water. I am inspired by this. I have beaten panic attacks; managed haemochromatosis; sought answers to the damage done to my health by clueless GPs and physiotherapists;  avoided knee surgery by patience, hard work and courage.

 I have thought I was dieing, I have though there was no future for me, I have been too scared to walk into a shopping centre in case I have another panic attack, been too fatigued and dizzy to walk around my unit, felt that my chest would explode, felt that I might collapse at any time. 

Despite all this I am alive and doing amazing things. This is only due to hard work and amazing COURAGE. I will give myself credit for that if no one else will.

  Also on the positive side was catching up with family over there. I met with their cute little dog, full of beans and personality.

Pool Interval Run

I did about 35 minutes in the pool.

Down the pool slow, back up the pool fast, trying to imagine I am doing a 4 minute kilometre. The intervals really sorted me out.

It was good in the pool today. People swimming squads in lanes in one half of the pool. I had lane 8 all to myself.

I have dropped Lenny my pet cockatiel off at the Pet resort. I’m ready to head over to Perth.

Hope Dad is OK. He had a fall on a bus a few weeks ago, and is losing a lot of weight apparently. I haven’t spoken to him for a while because his phone is currently disconnected.

Yesterday

I have a new TV. A 32 inch HD Digital. Took me a while to get it going and to set up Austar on it. ABC and SBS Digital have great pictures, but NBN and Prime seem pretty dodgy. A lot of interruptions to the picture quality.  

Megal Gale is going to play Wonder Woman in the Justive league of America films. I used to have a crush on Linda Carter. Something about a strong woman with a lasoo, did it for me as a teenager.

Yesterday started positively kneewise. I did a 6 k walk along Coffs Creek, the first the half  felt really good, the second half not so good at all. I tried taping the knee more loosely, I put the patella tendon strap on as well as the ITB strap.

Lenny’s collar chewing habit is getting out of control. She’s wrecking the collars of my shirts.

Spoke to Dad he is recovering well. He’s been out to Cottlesloe and Claremont on the Bus. A big improvement. He wasn’t able to make it down to the dining room last week.

Another day another dipthong.

Spoke to Dad. He’s still really tired after having the pacemaker put in. He’s not strong enough to make it down to the dining room yet. The doctors put the thing in  with a local anaesthetic. It really made his shoulder sore. He doesn’t complain.

My knee is going through 4 seasons in one day. Not sure how this is all going to pan out. Whether I’ll ever get a functional knee back.  The silly thing still maltracks.

Watched Million Dollar Baby on the television. I thought it was a good movie. I liked Hilary Swank’s character, a really tragic person. The only part I didn’t like was some of the hospital scenes, a little bit mawkish.

I agreed to do three weeks work away from home. I’m not sure why I said yes. I will have to cohabit with three other botanists. I haven’t co-habited with anyone for years. Well I did stay one night with my sister, but that is the first time for many years.

I tidied up my front and back courtyards on the weekend. I expected a standing ovation from my neighbours. They love tidiness 

Day 5

No tape. My knee is holding together without tape. The ITB strap keeps my quads in better balance. I can see more of a gap on the lateral side of my knee.

Spoke to Dad he is a bit tired but OK.

Day 4 without tape

Tomorrow I go for the record of days without tape. I’m just wearing the ITB strap. That seems to be enough. I’m doing glute squeezes and quad contractions almost non stop.

In other good news my father has had a pacemaker put in and is able to come home from hospital.  

I read a quote from someone that you get back the energy you give to the world. In my case I’ve been giving a lot of negative energy in the way of anger and fear. A lot of my problems are caused by the negative energy I get returned to me.  Just another way of saying I need to be more positive

ITB strap

I walked the Coffs Creek trail with only the ITB strap on. Leg felt about the same as with the tape on. There are some good signs and some bad ones. The strength of the VMo continues to grow. I worked the quad all day yesterday, with the ball and without. My glutes are definately stronger and the VMO seems to pull updwards like my good knee does.

Dad was taken to hospital in an ambulance. He’s pretty low. My sister said they are planning to put a pacemaker in his heart on Monday. I wonder if Dad will be up to such a procedure in his fragile condition?

Still he’s talking about wanting to get out and do things. So he hasn’t given up yet. I think my sister is going to ban him from getting on the bus to Freo. I tkaes too much out of him.

Dad

My father has gone into hospital. He has low blood pressure, aneamia and stomach troubles. The doctors are worried about him bleeding from somehwere and they want to check his bowels. He is 84 years old.

Whilst he enjoyed my visit to Perth maybe all the running around was too much for him. He said he enjoyed every minute of my visit and I enjoyed my time over there as well. However, we probably overdid it. I hope that isn’t what put him in hospital.

Dad comes from the old school. Never complains, never lets on when something is seriously wrong with him. I could learn something about courage from him. Makes my problems seem miniscule. He has beat lung cancer for eleven years. He forced to sell the family home , to move into a unit at Miranda, and finally move into a hostel in Perth two years ago. He complains a little sometimes about hating Western Australian beer, and that they only play damn AFL over there, but he gets on with life.