Fondue

Fondue Rule #3: When you lose your piece of bread in the cheese you either have to wash up or have a lump of concrete attached to your right leg and are thrown into Lake Geneva.
Either way, you still have to retrieve all bits of your piece of bread and until you do, everyone can poke fun at you.
Why?
Because it's not the fault of the piece of bread and it is a miserable existence to be sunk in the cheese.
Although I am much better now, I still feel like a piece of bread that's been cast adrift in a fondue. I am only just being retrieved bit by bit.

Went for a total of four runs this week for a total of 46.6ks and a ride of 23k.

Not too bad in terms of going out there, but I have definitely lost the mojo.

Probably sunk somewhere in the cheese with me.

Gotta go find it.

Going to Sydney tomorrow for two days which will interfere with things, but that's life.

I'm quite happy to do the HM, but am not expecting much. Rotto will be more important.

Crook no more

Just checking in briefly.

Have been crook and not up to much in the last two weeks.

Started up with a bit of running and riding over the last few days, but really not much to write home about.

I was hoping that the stiff right lower leg would resolve, but it's now flared up again.

Clown - if you're still up to doing the HM, we might walk it together....

Almost back in Business

Flew to Sydney today for a week's R&R. It's good to get away and lower leg permitting, I want to do some runs around the Botanical Gardens, Opera House, Harbour Bridge and so on. We're staying at Hyde Park like last year and that's really neat for some nice runs.

Had an easy week just to get things moving again:

Monday: Ride 23ks
Wednesday: Run 11.3ks at 4:49min/k
Friday: Run 12.5ks at 5min/k, level 2, av cad 87
Sunday: Ride 28ks

Running times were much better than expected. I felt really good, even going over hilly terrain in Kings Park.

Left lower still troubles me at times, usually just when I start off and then after the run again, but not during once I have warmed up. At times it's quite tender to touch over the bone on the inside and likewise the calf seizes up. I'm a bit stumped what it might be.

Riding is however no problem and seems to help, the pounding of the running makes it flare up.

I have signed up for the C2S Half-Marathon, already one might say, but knowing myself, I thought it was good to commit, otherwise I might get this crazy idea of doing the full.

This week I'll take it pretty easy and next week I'll sort out the program in more detail.

A bit like Berlin

Yesterday I decided I would try to crack 3:20 knowing full well that I was probably going to find it difficult. Although the preparation had not been bad, I had not had done enough long runs to feel confident I would last the distance.

But then I thought, the heck, I'll do half in 1:40 and then just go for broke.

And I did, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

The conditions were perfect this morning. About 8 degrees at the start, a bit of breeze on the South Perth foreshore and along the freeway, in both directions, but otherwise they could not be faulted.

Got there early enough for an easy warm-up. The right ankle and lower leg felt like a brick and I thought this would hold me back. But in reality they behaved quite well in the run and I had very little joint issues, the odd niggle, but nothing I could not cope with.

The 3:30 bus powered away in front of me and I thought that was a bit silly as I had planned to sit in front of them and then latch on if I had to. The third k they did in 4:15 min/k!

Anyway, I did as I had planned but definitely went too fast in the first 5 ks.

At 14ks I felt my thighs going tired and I knew I was going to be in trouble later on. At that point I was averaging 4:40 min/k for a 3:25 finish (1:10 elapsed time). No bother, I otherwise felt good, slowed a bit and went through half at 1:39:17.

By 30ks I had slowed just a bit and was still spot on for a 3:20 finish (2:22 elapsed time). And then the stomach cramps started as in Berlin, but just a few ks later. And the odd stitch as well. At various times I had to walk and with the by then pretty heavy legs I found it very difficult to get into a rhythm again.

During one of those breaks the 3:30 bus powered past me and I just could not hang on.

The 405 was doing funny things today - HR at 171 at times (??) and on the way out at least, it was way short. In the end the discrepancy was only .5%, but on the way I was not sure whether I could rely on it. The 15 and 30k readings above were real time.

In the end I came in at 3:31:18, not fantastic, but ok in the circumstances. As earlier in the year I doubted I might run one ever again, I have no reason to complain.

I'm not sure what to do about the stomach cramps. In Berlin I had had some stomach issues before independently of the running, but not since. So I think it must be running related. In Berlin I thought I might have overdone it with the nutrition and I took only a couple of gels with me today on purpose so I would not "over-feed".

Really takes the fun out of doing a marathon.

Right now I don't think I'll do the C2S marathon, but rather the half and see whether I can improve the time I set last year - maybe sub-1:30? Eight weeks is just a bit short to prepare for it, especially as Rottnest is another eight weeks later. That is booked and not to be missed (I would have been really sore had my knee turned out bad and I could not run it - but now I am confident of having another fun run there).

Otherwise, legs are a bit sore, stood in the freezing pool for five minutes and had a snooze for an hour, but feel just fine.

Wonder what tomorrow's like ;-))

Taper Doldrums

Pretty much how the week felt until today.

Ended up with shin splints in the right leg after the HM, so wasn't game to do too much (which in one sense is not bad), but then of course I wanted them to just go away.
Probably did too much fast stuff in the last couple of weeks and I am just glad there's only one week to go:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 12ks with 6k at MP
Wednesday: what happened on Wednesday, no idea, the day started, I went to work and then it ended and I didn't even have time to think about running;
Thursday: Same thing as Wednesday...
Friday: Intervals 9ks;
Saturday: Set up the road bike on the Computrainer and did about 25ks on that;
Sunday: 16ks with Clown and Epi - easy run for them, below MP for me.

Shin is sort of ok. It really improved after the bike session and I'll throw in a couple of those sessions in this week just looking for a nice turnover.

Went to Runners World this pm to get some High 5 gels, but they had run out of them. I still need to plan what I'm going to do nutritionwise. Probably go for the minimum so I don't end up with cramps as at Berlin.

All things being equal, I'll try for a 4:50 pace or thereabouts. I'll probably hang on to the 3:30 bus and decide at half way whether I stick with them.

Age is spelled A for Again, G for Gravity and E for Experience

First week of taper, always a challenge not to ease off too much when you're supposed to take the foot off the pedal.

I think at least this week I sort of had it under control:
Monday: Rest;
Tuesday: Intervals 400 to 1,600m pyramid, total 12.14ks;
Wednesday: Medium Long Run, 14.74ks at ave HR 140;
Thursday: Fartlek around Kings Park which included a few hills, 12.92ks, ave HR 138, max 161;
Friday/Saturday: Rest, mini-taper for HM;
Sunday: Perth HM, 21.1ks
Total for the week: 60.81ks.

The various bruises from last week's fall healed quite ok, although I hit my left thigh much harder than I had thought. I had also hit my left upper arm and shoulder and was a bit sore for a couple of days. The thigh was worse off and it was really only in the last couple of days that it cleared up.
Also have a bit of trouble in the right ankle, inner lower shins, somehow freezes when I don't move for a while.
Anyway, all good really, but gravity definitely has it in for me. Slipped on the wet pavement before the race today and hit the ground hard with the right upper thigh, but did not really notice until about halfway into the race. I blame it on old age...
By this morning the plan was to use it as a tempo run until the half way point at just under 4:30 and then see how I felt and take it from there. Apart from the stiff breeze from the Narrows onwards to UWA all was fine, so I just kept going. Took me 48 minutes for the first half and 46m 27secs for the second, so I even managed to turn up the tempo on the second half for a new pb of 1:34:27 (by 7 secs... and I set my pb at the C2S course last year which was more difficult and I was in better shape).
There were a lot of entrants, I am pretty sure must have been a record turn-out. The start was quite slow and painful and the puddles on and alongside the footpath were a bit of a pain. Lots of hooking left and right necessary. Took a little while to get across the start line and I lost about 45 secs on the first k just because of the crowd.
Tina Major won the women's race and she made a very important comment about her training, since she has just had another baby. Everything has to be well planned and she can't afford to just go out for a bit of a run as each and everyone counts. No junk miles (she didn't use the j word, but clearly that is what she had in mind). Goes for old fellas, too.
So for the next two weeks I hope that the ankle clears up and I'll give myself rest with one other good interval session and otherwise short tempo runs and strides.
I'm not sure I have the base to do 3:20, but I'll look at beating the Berlin time of 3:26. Need to work on the nutrition plan, too.

Humpty Dumpty becomes a Centurion

Well, what a couple of weeks it has been.

Last week was nothing to write home about. The first couple of days I was very busy at work due to taking off three days on camp in the second part. Felt a bit fluey and having a young boy who does sports and gets in contact with those western suburb bubble kids I thought I'd hold back.

Anyway, got one run in all week and after we got back from Waroona (boy, it gets cold there - the windchill is off the scale) it took me two days to warm up.

But I was rested and was looking forward to a good week before going into taper:
Monday - Tempo 21.93 at 3:20 MP HR 153
Tuesday Recovery/Medium Long 15:41 HR 137 - managed to stop Epi as he was flying past me - boy, is he fast!
Wednesday - Rest for the old bones;
Thursday - Intervals 400 to 1600 pyramid, decent improvement over the last lot two weeks ago, but the quads were sore afterwards;
Friday - Rest for the old muscles;
Saturday - Long run 35.22k HR 136 - quads were still sore but otherwise was feeling very good. Tripped at Lovers' Lane in Peppy Grove at 12ks and got pretty smashed up, right knee and hands all bloody, bruised left thigh, arm and shoulder but wasn't going to let that stop me.
All I thought was how much I hate hitting the ground and if it wasn't going to kill me it would make me strong. Going home was going to be 12ks anyway, so I might as well do the further 23k I had intended. I did get some odd looks running up Cottesloe with the right leg and hands all bloody... Forerunner looks like the dog had chewed on it, but seems to be working alright.
Mentally I was feeling much better than two weeks ago and apart from the pain of the fall itself, I felt comfortable and quite strong to the end.
Sunday: Had to work and was quite sore all over (quite apart from the supporating sores). I thought I would just go out for an easy run to see which bits were about to fall apart. But nothing did!
By the time I was at UWA I felt like giving it a push and went below MP to the Bells and back. Easy cool down home again and presto: 100.28k for the week.
Right knee needs a bit of attention and left thigh and shoulder are also still sore, but otherwise everything is working quite nicely.

Now to the hard part: taper. Will do the HM on Sunday and at least one heavy interval session, otherwise just put in a couple of runs looking for a good turnover.

Who's in for carbo loading on Independence Day?

Ave Moi and Happy Birthday to me

Few weeks back we went to see Asterix at the Olympic Games and Alain Delon played Julius Caesar. He kept hitting his chest with his right fist and declared: "Ave moi!"
That's sums it up for me today. Total for the week: 91.08ks - new record.

At least today, as yesterday I was a bit in the doldrums. Whilst I did close to 35ks, I was really struggling for the first 28k - courtesy of having slept in on Thursday and not having time to do intervals until Friday. They really took it out of me and I was not happy yesterday morning.

Today's my birthday and I "celebrated" by doing a dash around Kings Park - 12ks in under an hour at level 2, no wonder I'm happy.

Monday: Hills (Mount St x 8) 13.42ks - mentally quite tough after about the sixth time staring at that hill;
Tuesday: Medium long run 18.64ks, of which 8ks <5min/ks quite comfortably - which is a possible MP. Quite a good effort considering I donated blood (platelets) in the morning;
Wednesday: Rest;
Thursday: Woke up to the alarm and promptly fell asleep again - busy at work and had my mind on other things anyway;
Friday: Intervals, ladder as last week 12.04ks;
Saturday: Long run 34.82ks;
Sunday: Felt like an easy run 12.15ks.

Next week will be easy. Wednesday to Friday I will be on camp with junior and I won't bother taking any running gear with me. I'm planning on doing close to 70ks and then another hard week before starting the taper.

I'm not committing to a goal time for the marathon just yet, but given that I still lack speed, I doubt I'll go for anything faster than 3:30. Let's see how I go in the half and then I'll assess it again.

Wet 'n' Wild

Mmmmh, just typed up the blog and then it disappeared and even with auto-save I can't find it.

Will keep it short - same kind of program as last week, just with additional reps on Mount Street and Reabold Hill, extended the intervals to 400-800-1,200-1,600-1,200-800-400 and a longer long run.

Wussed out on Thursday, had to do the intervals on Friday and paid for it on Saturday's long run with very tired legs.

Total 81.18 ks for the week, the longest since August last year.

All systems go.

Nice going

Couldn't think of another title, but it sums up the week.

I am now well underway to make a start at Perth in 7 weeks' time. I still don't trust my knees not to have a lend of me, but we'll just have to see.

The satisfying part of the week was that work was full-on (including a post-midnight stint) but I still got the planned training done:

Monday: Hills (Mount St x6) 11.35k
Tuesday: Medium long run incl. Reabold Hill x2 14.24k
Wednesday: Rest (I think I deserved that after getting to be at 1:30)
Thursday: Intervals as last week 10k
Friday: Tempo run 6.5k
Saturday: Long run 30.34k at 5.23/k ave HR 139

Felt comfortable on every run except warm ups when the joints are just a bit creaky (this is old age, Sling!) and the last 5ks on the long run.

Pity about daylight saving not being introduced, I'll have to get used to running in daylight in the morning...

Star Trek is better than surgery

Way better. Go. See it. Awesome!

My fortunate 12 year old not only came to see it with me and his older brother on Thursday, he also got to see it again yesterday courtesy of one of his mates' birthday party. Boy, were we jealous.

Now to more prosaic things:

Week four in a four-weekly cycle means and reduced the mileage slightly, in effect by leaving out the tempo run on Friday. No riding this week either, although I had originally planned it. So that gave me another rest day on Wednesday. Total for the week 58.55k.
Monday: Hills (Mount Street x5) 10.75k
Tuesday: Medium longish at level 2 12k
Thursday: Intervals 400, 600, 800, 1200, 800, 600, 400, total 10k
Saturday: Long run 25.9k at 5:17 pace HR ave. 135 (previous week same course 5:21 pace HR ave 139).
And a brief session with weights in the gym after each run.
I am still shockingly slow but there is some improvement in the interval sessions.

The plan is pretty simple Monday hills, Tuesday medium long run, Wednesday ride or rest, Thursday intervals, Friday short tempo and Saturday long run. Sunday is always rest.

I'm not sure whether the sequence is right in the second part of the week, but I think if I don't overdo it with the tempo run I should be ok.

I won't do any races until the Perth Half and even then I'm more than likely going to do it at MP.

Live long and prosper!

Canned!

The surgery that is.
Despite increasing the load this week yet again, I am having hardly any trouble with the knees and as a result cancelled the surgery.

Time will tell how long it is going to take until I need to schedule it again, but for now I am planning to build up to firstly do the Perth Half and then possibly the Perth Marathon as well.

This week I put together a total of 65k running, but no riding. This included intervals, hills, medium-long run, MP run and a long run of 26ks.

With a three week taper for the marathon I should be able to put in four runs at 30k plus.

The half is two weeks before the marathon and more than likely I will not race it but rather use it as a MP run.

So much for a plan - now I just wish Mr Murphy will leave me alone.

Stumped!

After a slow start to the week (sore throat, runny nose), I was able to build up to a total of 60ks running and 30ks on the bike.

Trouble is though that both knees are travelling very nicely, in fact completely trouble-free.

Which then begs the question? What's the point of having surgery.

I'm just puzzled how bad it felt a month ago and yet I increased the mileage and it got better.

I'll give the orthopod a call tomorrow and then we'll see, but it looks as if I'm going to see Star Trek on the 7th, not the 8th!

Suggestions, ideas?

Slow blow-up

Despite a significant increase in mileage, the troublesome knee is holding up quite well. It's slowly, but only slowly accumulating fluid.
I guess that means I will need the surgery, but it's really rather preventative and all things being equal, I might manage to keep the interruption to the training to a minimum.
Perth Marathon won't be possible, though.
This week's figures:
Running 57.46k at 5:14m/k and HR 140 (4 days)
Cycling 59.04k at 29.25k/h and HR 127 (2 days)
Weights on 4 days
Today is rest day.

Now just waiting to get Epi's result from Canberra.

Status Report

To make it very clear, training-wise I have currently no idea what I am doing. I just go out there and enjoy myself.
A few weeks back I was in Albany for work and ran and rode a bit down there - very pleasant except that the wind seems to be coming from everywhere - usually the front.
Otherwise I have kept things quite easy and in return I am not having any knee trouble at the moment. With the surgery booked for 7 May (slight change in date - 27 April is public holiday), I feel like an absolute fraud.

Progress has been like this:
Week 23 March: Run 18.75k, Ride 45.33k;
Week 30 March: Run 32.36k, Ride 18.10k;
Week 6 April: Run 52.48k, Ride 15.7k.

Not sure where I'm going from here. Did an early morning run of 13.5k this morning and the knee is doing fine. A bit swollen, but not too bad. Nowhere near as bad as when I had it checked out.
I'm not even sure whether I want/need the op, but what I am certain is that if I cancel it, the knee will blow up within 5 seconds, Murphy's law.

Err, well, it was a week

Not quite sure how I can follow "Challenging Week" and "Massive Week", so I'll just leave it at that.

Saw the orthopod on Tuesday and to my surprise he suggested we leave the MRI be and go in straightaway to fix it. Fine by me. Know what's wrong with it anyway.
Trouble is of course he is a busy boy, so to tie it in with my commitments, I am now booked for 27 April.

Even if I were to keep building up the ks now, I would not be ready for the Perth Marathon, so I'll leave that one out yet again.

But C2S is definitely on the cards as is Rotto.

The week was quite easy. As by Tuesday the left knee had blown up like a balloon I opted for rest during the remainder of the week and that was the right thing to do. It's now just marginally bigger than the right one.

In the weeks going up to the op I'll focus on just a bit of running, a fair amount of riding and will spend more time in the gym to build up the muscles supporting the knee. And yes, losing a bit of weight would be a great idea. Last time it worked wonders for my recovery, so I'll stick to that.

I had planned to watch the triathlon OD championship today but because it was my mum's last day here and I wanted to spend a bit more time with her (who knows whether the 80 year old girl will make the travel down here again), I only caught a few glimpses of the race.

Anyway, plans have to be made to improve in the swimming department and not being able to run in May will be just the ticket to get some proper coaching. Clown - are you in? Let me know.

Plodding along

Yes, exactly that. Just keeping things ticking over to make sure I don't do too much damage for now.
Tuesday Run 11.27k @ 5:13 HR 144
Thursday Ride 17:08k @2:04 HR 120
Friday Run 15:34k @5:23 HR 142
Sunday Brick Ride 22:55 @2:05 HR 121, Run 6.6k @5:13 HR 134
On Thursday I also suffered my very first puncture, but I did not realise that until I pulled the bike out this morning at 5:30am. I suppose that's all part of the experience.
Knee is surprisingly good, if swollen, but of course I haven't really done anything serious.

More after Tuesday

Oh, just bugger it! aka every problem is an opportunity

Eventually old age was going to catch up with me, again, or so I thought with my right knee going. But as it happens that one is fine but the left one now giving me grief.

After bumbling about for six weeks I dragged myself off on Tuesdday to the GP who just confirmed that the meniscus in that one looks pretty shot.

So off to the orthopod on 10/3 and presumably he'll want to see an MRI and will tell me that as long as I am not bothered, there is no need to go into it. Predictably, I will be bothered and will want to have it fixed.

That's the bad part, the good part is that having my fears confirmed, I thought to myself, well, bugger it, thinking that before the last surgery I did the Perth HM and the C2S on virtually no training and quite enjoyed it.

So I put a bit of mileage in this week:
Tuesday Run 13k @ 5:11 HR 144
Thursday Run 13k @ 5:18 HR 145
Friday Ride 22k @ 2:06 HR 125
Sunday Run 15.3k @ 5:25 HR 148
Today Ride 70k @ 2:17 HR 121

The heart rate for the runs is a bit high, more in endurance territory than base as it should be now, but I felt comfortable and just going out was more important than watching the heart rate all the time. As I ran in the evening, the humidity and heat did not really help either.

On Sunday I happened to run for a while with John Annear who is training for Ironman China and gave me a couple of useful tips re swimming traing (Clown, you will hear more about this). I have now been told he is a famous former West Coast Eagle and physio so I suspect he knows his stuff.

This morning's ride was a shocker - at least on the way down from Scarborough to South Fremantle - the wind was strong and blustery and a couple of times I feared I was going to be blown off the bike - that obviously did not help with the speed.

So, how's the knee: pretty good actually, well apart from being swollen and painful, but since it is a dull pain. As long as I don't extend or flex it and turn on it, it's quite bearable.

For now, I intend to keep up a decent run every second day with a ride thrown in here and there. Until I know exactly what is going to happen, I think I'll leave out anything heavy such as speed work and intervals.

In Brief

In brief, the last two weeks have been utter nonsense.

Although I was taking time off from work, I was busy will all sorts of other stuff around the house (the renovating of the kids' rooms and frequent trips to Bunnings and Ikea being part of it), that I couldn't get my act together.

I won't even trouble myself adding up what I've done other than to note that the first four-week block of base training has passed.

Now that I am about to go back to work and have to adopt a more regular routine, I expect things to return to some state of normality. I've had to start working over the past few days and I've seen an improvement already with more regular runs and rides.

I haven't quite settled my plans for the year yet, although I know that the Australia Day Triathlon looks iffy.

On the other hand, Clown and Epi both are mumbling about Busselton IM in December and that is definitely something to work towards.

On a very bright note, Lucius is due back tomorrow night!