Orchid

Spotted this sweet little Caladenia orchid in the bush on Friday.

Palms Crossing Trail Bongil National Park

Paperbarks with wet feet, Palms Crossing

 Dolmans Point

Broad-leaved Paperbark

Pixie Caps Orchid

Cycle, run and long run

Once as I travelled through a quiet evening,
I saw a pool, jet-black and mirror-still.
Beyond, the slender paperbarks stood crowding;
each on its own white image looked its fill,
and nothing moved but thirty egrets wading -
thirty egrets in a quiet evening.

Once in a lifetime, lovely past believing,
your lucky eyes may light on such a pool.
As though for many years I had been waiting,
I watched in silence, till my heart was full
of clear dark water, and white trees unmoving,
and, whiter yet, those thirty egrets wading.

Egrets Judith Wright

 

I’ve been  training hard. I don’t think I comprehend the words ‘go easy’.

On Monday I did a 50 minute ride on the exercise bike, my longest yet. Tuesday was an 8km tempo run in 38:38.

Wednesday I spent an enjoyable day in the field. I discovered a species of bird orchid (Chiloglottis sylvestris) that made my day. It started to rain heavily, and I got soaked going from the car into the office. I also added Thin-leaved Stringybark (Eucalyptus eugeniodes) to the species list for Bongil Bongil NP.

Bird Orchid

On Thursday I did a moderate 10km run along the cycle path in 49.24. I pushed hard the last kilometre.

49:27 (5:09, 4:55, 4:55, 5;01, 5:02 (25:02), 5:01, 5:09, 4:57, 5:00, 4:18 (24:25)   

Friday I had a rest day.

Saturday morning I did a 16km run along the bike path and almost into Sawtell. I made it as far as part of the Sawtell fun Run course. It was raining and cool this morning and I really like those conditions to run in.

16km 82:37 (5:31, 4:55, 4:51, 4:58, 4:48 (25:03), 5:08, 5:22, 5:21, 5:22, 5:13 (26:26), 5:00, 5:01, 5:26, 5:20, 5:24, (26:11) 4:57

The first 5km I stopped to tie my shoe laces twice and had trouble with the bezel changing display due to rain drops. The second 5km I crossed the road, ran on grass, as I ran along the main road into Sawtell. Started to stiffen up the last 4 kilometres, which is reflected in the times.

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.

Some pretty piccies

Mulla Mulla (Kings Park), Verticordia (Meelup Regional Park), WA Christmas Bush, Nutysia floribunda (Meelup Regional Park).

Meelup Regional Park

 

Veiw to Sugarloaf Rock, Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park 

Back from holidays

Had a great time over in Perth. My visit to my sister’s holiday house in Dunsborough was a nice little holiday within  a holiday.

So what did I get up to? Explored nearly every trail in Kings Park. Learnt to identify nearly 80 plant species with the excellent Perth Plants book. There were some nice flowers out in Kings Park, such as Swan River Myrtles, Mulla Mullas, Melaleucas, and Hemiandras.

I walked for more than 2 hours every day. The knee was fiery and sore  at the start of the week, but seems to have improved over my holiday. On 30 December I did a 7.4 km walk in Meelup Regional Park, and played 9 holes of golf; and the knee whilst not 100% percent, held up to the activity very well.

 http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/oursites/perth/shop/flora.asp

Spent a lot of time with my father and drove him around Perth to his and my favourite places. Kailis’s in freo, nice grilled fish and shopping in Cottlesloe and Claremont. I enjoy Dad’s company, I’ve spent every Christmas of my life with him. And wherever Dad is keeps me in touch with ‘home’ and the great childhood I had thanks to my parents. Only had one swim in the Claremont Pool. This was on Boxing Day, which was the hottest place in the world at 44 degrees. The day before was 42.

Dad let me take some photos of me, mum and dad. They were from holidays in the 1970s, 1980s in the Blue Mountains. There’s a photo of me with my first ever pair of binoculars when I started to get into birdwatching. I still have the book Common Bird of Australian Gardens they gave me. Fond memories of that time! There’s even a photo of me in the 1984 Sutherland to Surf. There’s a photo of me in Jan 1985 at the peak of my running powers. There is not a pinch of fat on my body, my quads look strong.

Flying into Coffs Harbour yesterday, I realised how much it doesn’t feel like coming home. It is a bad way to spend 12 years of your life; returning to a place that you don’t call home.   Moving to Northern NSW was a bad life choice.

The Week in Sydney

Saturday.Arrived Saturday night. Hurried from the airport, checked in at Wolli Creek and rushed straight out to Telstra Stadium. On the train I got into a carriage with a bunch of inebriated masters soccer players. They were loud, very loud. Was kind of glad to get away from them. They weren’t obnoxious, just blind drunk.

I took my seat five minutes before kick off. There was a crowd of 56 000 in attendance,  truck loads of colour and atmosphere, gold and blue parra flags, blue and white bulldogs fans. My knee was feeling nice and loose. I had put on a ilio tibial band strap, which seemed to help. 

The Bulldogs scored first with  Joel Reddy struggling in defence. The Eels hit back with two tries and a field goal to lead 13-6. A Dogs fan said, “That’s bullsheet.” every time the Eels got a penalty. She sounded like that Greek comedian Effie.

Kristan Inu smiling as he lines up a kick.

The Eels scored two late tries to win 25-6. Jarryd Hayne pulled in a pass above his head and put the ball down one handed for the last try. I was glad the Eels won. Never have liked the Dogs. The Eels have many talented backs who are  entertaining to watch. I used to support the Eels when they were up against Manly in the 1976 GF.

At central I bought a burger at Hungry Jacks. I sat down next to a fellow who had a magazine with a picture of a sports car on it. He was really impressed with the car. I asked if it was his, he nodded yes. He pointed at my leg and wanted to know what was wrong with it. I said it was sore. The man then showed me heaps of pages , he seemed to be impressed with patterns and shapes in the magazine. I believe he may suffer from autism or schizophrenia. He was a friendly and happy dude. I gave him a couple of my chips.

The motel room was on the ninth floor with a view of the international terminal.  At various times there were Japan Airlines, United Airlines, Air New Zealand, Emirates, Singapore Airlines parked at the departure gates. The picture below is the view from my motel room you can see Wolli Creek, and parts of th loop of the walk I did each morning.

Sunday.Went for a walk around Wolli Creek. My leg didn’t feel too bad, the nerve pain was there so was a pain on top of my ankle. Then I went into the City.

The film Final Winter was on at Hoyts. It was reasonably entertaining. It was about the final year in the career of a hard player called Grub Henderson. Dirty on the field, but a family man off it. The boundaries between his hardness on and off the field becomes blurred. He has to reasses what is important to him the game or his family that he is neglecting. Matt Johns was good as the coach. Seemed to get better as the movie went on. Matt Nable played Grub; he looked a bit like Charles Bronson. An interesting character with two very distinct sides to him.

 I walked through the Domain to the Gardens bought another copy of Ocean Shores to Desert Dunes which I left in the motel last time.

My legs started to tighten up when I walked through the domain. I went as far as the Boy Charlton Pool. Then back past the Opera House. What was troubling was the nerve pain, and pains in my back and my ankle. 

Monday. The physio decided that a lot of my pain was coming from the sacro iliac joint. He dry needled it, and massaged my ITB and lateral retinaculum. He thought  I was getting on top of the patella problems. I said that I could sense that the VMO was stronger, but was annoyed by the persistent nerve pain and knee catching. The biofeedback gear said that my VMO:VL ratio was 1:5, which is pretty crap. The physio said I was welcome to come in every day and use the biofeedback gear. After that first session  I was able to get closer to a 1:1 VMO:VL ratio.

Tuesday. Went for another walk around Wolli Creek. There was definately less nerve pain than the day before. However, I had developed nasty blisters on my heel, which was really making walking painful. Went into town and visted the physio, he kindly hooked up the gear and showed me how to use it. Again I was able to get the VMO firing better. Perhaps I overdid it, because when I left my knee was a bit sore and there was lots of cracking in it. More annoying was the blister pain on my heel.

I went for a walk over to Darling Harbour. I’d never been to the Sydney Aquarium. It was well worth a visit. A very impressive collection of fish, from coral to freshwater habitats. Really weird fish like the Unicorn Fish, massive Barramundi and other brightly coloured fish I can’t remember the names of. They even had a couple of platypus. Of course there is the oceanarium where you walk underwater, with Sharks and Rays swimming over the top. There was black tip and white tip Reef, lemon Sharks, Grey Nurse Sharks and huge rays. The Solitary Islands display also had some impressive looking fish. I thought it was really great. I was limping about becuase my feet were sore from the blisters.

Wednesday.Waterfall to Heathcote Bushwalk. I was determined to do this walk. The day got off to a bad start. The scissors I had to cut the knee tape disappeared from my room, probably got caught up in the bed clothes. So I headed to Sutherland and bought a pair of scissors in  a newsagent. Then I head down to Waterfall.

I can’t remember the last time I did this walk. But I used to do it regularly before I got my first car. I changed into my trousers at the start of the trail. Near Waterfall Oval I bumped into a bloke, carrying a cheap carry bag, and rugged up in a beanie and shabby clothes. I suspected he was a homeless man  who had slept overnight in the park.

The Wildlowers were out in profusion. Eriostemons, Boronias, Black-eyed Susans, Bacon and Egg Plants, White beards, Sun Orchids, Caledenias. My knee gave me a bit of curry walking down hill into Uloola Falls. Uloola Falls had a bit of water going over it. I remembered I camped there once in a bivvie bag. Stretching my knee seemed to loosen it up and I decided I was going pretty well. Then I walked over to Karloo Pools. The sandstone heath was alive in colour. One of my favourite plants the Native Rose (Boronia serrulata) was very profuse. I bumped into a flowering Gymea Lily near Karloo Pools. Karloo Pools looked very green in colour. I was very happy all of a sudden; wistfully so.

Then I headed uphill to Heatchcote. My knee reall started to fire up getting closer to Heathcote Station. I’d probably overdone, but I was determined to do this walk, and I made it. Who knows if I’ll ever walk it again? It was a pleasant return to memories of my times bushwalking in the 1980s. I decided that I was a pretty good young bloke then. It’s a shame that things haven’t got all that positively for me since then. Better times, discovering nature, becoming a good runner.

Went into the physio late and had a practice with the biofeeback gear my VMO was going much more strongly. The other physio hooked it up, I couldn’t believe how well it was going, so I reattached it to make sure it wasn’t cheating.

Some Wildflower Photos

Gompholobium virgatum

Gymea lily Doryanthes excelsa

Native Rose Boronia serrulata

Eriostemon australasius

Thursday. Headed to Miranda Fair. Bought two pairs of Shorts.  Dad’s old block of units had a lock on the gate and a fence where vandals used to take a short cut and break the light globes. Ate Subway for lunch, and headed back to the Motel. The nerve pain was bugging me most of the time, and there was a lot of catching in my knee . 

At the physio I praticed with the biofeeback gear again. My VMO was more active again. After that I visted Wildlife World. Not as good as the Aquarium. The highlight was the Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies and a Cassowary. My knee was bugging me, the cracking and catching and nerve pain.

Friday. A similar pattern was developing. A positive morning walk around Wolli Creek. Followed by a stroll in the domain, then a physio appointment. The physio gave me another dry needle and massage. He had a look at the VMO:VL ratio and it was much closer to 1:1. He was pretty happy with the way I was going and advised that I stick at it and eventually I will be able to walk and maybe run a bit. I’m happy with the increased strength, but the nerve pain that I feel is persistant, I wonder if I will ever get on top of it. The weird thing is that I was more pain free in December and February. Don’t seem to to be able to recapture that.

All in all, I’ve found the physio to be very helpful; very good of him to let me use the biofeedback gear without extra charge. It is a friendly practice, I feel welcome when I go there. Trouble is that it is so far away in Sydney. I wish Coffs had a similar quality of physios and sports physicians. I do believe that the physio I had early in this injury was not up to scratch, and it really has set me back. I am confident that if I’d done some of the things that I am doing now, the outcome would have been a lot different and less of a nightmare. I secretly fear that I have done too much damage to my knee, and it is stuffed and will never be the same. Each positive sign is countered by a negative one.

This afternoon I visted the zoo. I enjoyed the bird and nocturnal mammal exhibits. Bilby’s, Feather-tailed Gliders, Bettongs, Potoroos, Quolls. I was really impressed by the Superb Fruit Doves and Rose Crwoned Fruit Doves. My knee was troubling me most of the afternoon. I had lost the ITB strap that helped me last Saturday.

Saturday. Last day in Sydney. Morning walk around Wolli Creek. The nerve pain will not relent. The whole leg doesn’t feel smooth. My feet, my back, my ankle, the knee. I went up to observation deck at Centrepoint Tower. My knee was really getting sore after a walk around the Domain to the Opera House and up George Street.

The Cowboys got thrashed by Manly in the semi final. The seat I had was pretty lousy. Supposedly a premium ticket. Higher up would have been better, I’ll know what to ask for next time. I was in amongst a bunch of rude Manly supporters who stood up every time Manly made a break. I asked them to sit down, but the arrogant father just waved at me. Why not stand up with rest of us, was his reponse. Well firstlyI have a sore knee, secondly I am not excited by Manly making  a break and thirdly you shouldn’t be so rude as to block other’s view of the game, when you can see perfectly well sitting down. Do I hate Manly supporters? Yes. And that man just gave me more reason to despise them. And yes pal, you are a rude smart arse, and your son is a bad sport for swearing at Jonathon Thurston. I will swear all I like at selfish, arrogant, rude people like you. 

 I moved at half time to behind the goal posts. I could see the game better with my binoculars. So a bad end to the holiday really, my knee was sore walking back to Central station. I can only hope Manly choke in the GF.