Here comes the Black Ninja!

Started off at the Vic Market as normal this morning, but another fairly quick trip around like last week as Adrienne had already done a lot of fruit & veg shopping at the local shops.

Next job was to go get a haircut, so I should be a bit more “streamlined” for tomorrow

The exciting news though is I bought this today!

Well, put down a deposit anyway, I pick it up next Saturday. It was quite reasonably priced actually, $500 cheaper than similarly spec’d bikes I’ve been looking at, so I got it and various accessories (seat bag, pump, bottle cage, speed/distance/cadence computer and a new car rack) for less than some of the other bikes I’d been looking at. It is full Shimano 105 groupset and carbon forks / back stays, so it is the level of bike I’ve wanted. I can feel some triathalons coming on next year – all I’ve got to do is get my swimming up to scratch

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow – here’s hoping we all have a safe and enjoyable run, and are all happy with our results. Did everyone notice in the paper this week that there has been a small change to the course – now going down Yarra Promenade, not Whiteman Street – I reckon that will shorten the course to about 15km. Also, did you see in the paper that they are taking videos of everyone finishing which you will be able to view on the Herald-Sun website once official times are published!

Monthly  running summary
20 runs totaling 166kms for the month (495 YTD), average pace 5:14 min/km – looking back at March 2006 my average pace was 6:13 min/km, so that is nearly a minute improvement over the year.

Weigh-in
This mornings weigh in sees the weight at 71.8kg, well under the 75kg goal, but the BF% has snuck up to 15.0%, dead-on the goal limit, so better watch that.

Steaming mad …

All I am going to say is that I am steaming mad, it is family stuff, it involves one of my kids and time and money being wasted, and leave it at that … now all I want to do is talk about something else.

I just got breathalysed, not a problem because I don’t really drink much any more, in fact I quite enjoy getting breathalysed when I haven’t been drinking … adds some excitement to the drive I guess. Also, the last few times I’ve been breathalysed it has been a nice little policewoman. Are policewomen getting cuter, or am I just developing a thing for women in uniform?

All I seem to be able to think about is Sunday. I’ve decided that my goal is to run the R4K in 5 minutes less than I did the slightly shorter course last year. I think this is quite acheivable, may even be what TB calls a bit “soft”. I’ve picked out the race kit, Kayanos, new Thorlos, R4K t-shirt, Skins long-sleeved top and my grey Everlast shorts. The only decision left to make is to iPod or not to iPod.

Did a slow 6km loop tonight, wasn’t sure whether to or not, but decided that as long as I kept it slow and easy it should be okay. In order to ensure it was easy I took a walk break for the last 100m of each kilometre. Including the walk breaks it was 5:49 pace. Tomorrow is definitely a day of rest though.

Sara, DOMS is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Wikipedia definition is the pain or discomfort often felt 24 to 72 hours after exercising and subsides generally within 2 to 3 days. Once thought to be caused by lactic acid buildup, a more recent theory is that it is caused by tiny tears in the muscle fibres caused by eccentric contraction, or unaccustomed training levels.

Here are a few more “P” words, the first one suggested by Celeste for me.

Pace – something that all we runners are a wee bit obsessed with, but something that a year or so ago I never thought would be used in any way to do with me.

PC – the personal computer plays such a large part in my life, given that my during the day I’m running an IT Service Desk and at night on the internet with you lot An interesting fact is that my company actually had the very first IBM Personal Computer in Australia.

Peanut butter – after running, is probably my second biggest obsession . I love it on hot toast, or a hot muffin – don’t really eat it cold. Problem is, when I have it, I often have too much, not only too much on each slice, but rarely stop until at least 4 slices.

Also, just noticed I got my 4,000th hit today on the blog – I can’t believe you’re all coming back for this drivel each day . But thanks for doing so, it does mean a lot to me!

Garden Show

Had a nice day at the Garden Show today, much nicer than going to work. It was the first time we’d been to the Garden Show, and we both enjoyed it. Managed to avoid spending too much money! I think my favourites were the bonsai, some of them were just awesome – looking just like normal big trees but only a foot high – I think I might have to take this up when I retire

Just as I was saying there was no magazines to buy, all three of the ones I get every month (Runners World, Run For You Life and Ultra-Fit) all appear in the newsagent on the same day – makes going in to buy the newspaper quite expensive

Heard on the radio yesterday that they reckon that “50 is the new 21″, that is people at 50 these days are enjoying themselves like 21 year olds of a few years ago. That made me feel better. I think I feel as good now, after losing all my weight etc., as I did when I was 30, not sure about 21 though! BTW, I’ve still got a little way to go before 50!

Just went for a short run, thought I’d be better off taking an easy run today, and maybe tomorrow rather than having 5 non-running days in a row before Sunday. I’ve got the ice packs on the knees which don’t feel too bad. It was my normal 6km loop in 29:47 (4:56 pace). Wore the Brooks Trances again – not sure about them still.

Okay Kathy assigned me the letter “P” and I have come up with a few “P” words.

Parenting – in my opinion this is probably the most important, rewarding, difficult, stressful job there is. There is no doubt in my mind that children don’t appreciate there parents until they have there own kids (I know I didn’t). I have two wonderful kids (Chris 20, Kate 17) who I’m very proud of, and am also quite willing to admit that Adrienne has done more of the parenting than I have (as most Mums do, I think).

Perfectionist – I am one of these. It can be a blessing and a curse.

Pink Floyd – my favourite band – I go to sleep to their music every night!

Polar – my favourite running accessory is my Polar rs800sd. Originally I had a Polar F11, which I loved, but recently upgraded to give me the pace / distance measurement. Both of these have helped me greatly in my exercise and running.

Into the grand final …

Made an executive decision this morning to give Boot Camp a miss today as well as Friday, yesterday the DOMS hit my quads too, probably from all the lunges and squats, so I’ve decided that R4K is definitely the priority and will resume Boot Camp next week.

We played the semi-final in our inter-departmental sand volleyball competition tonight and won it surprisingly easily. We just seemed to gel as a team tonight, and won 15-8, 15-1, 15-6 – and therefore will be playing in the Grand Final next week.

That was definitely the highlight of work today though, in fact things were so depressing today that when one of my team offered me a donut, I actually took one (a huge pink-iced one) and ate it. Now for me to do that, I must have been in a mood. Not surprisingly it didn’t really help. Thankfully I have a day off tomorrow, to take Adrienne to the Garden Show, so that will be good (assuming the weather is reasonable).

Deege, yes, I have spent a significant amount of time browsing the Triathlon mags too the last couple of weeks, haven’t bought one yet though. Although there is one on the shelves at the moment “Triathlon Training Guide” I’ve nearly bought a couple of times as it seems to have some great articles.

Kathy, I will work on the “P” words for a future post.

Edit: Just got back from tonight’s basketball game, it was a late one, 10:10pm. The girls had a comfortable win 21-35.

Sore …

After only one day of Boot Camp and I am so sore … all around the chest and upper arms are feeling terrible. This morning I even had trouble lifting my arms above my head to wash my hair in the shower. I’m going to go in the morning, but I think I’ll definitely give Friday a miss. My knee is getting better, but is still a little sore.

Does anyone think that I am doing the wrong thing not running at all for 3-4 days before the race ? Should I at least go for a short, easy run?

Work was crap again today (sorry about the language). We had some problems with our network on Monday that caused some business outages to a few facilities. The problem with IT is that no-one ever gives you credit for all the time that things work. So today was post-mortem time. I’ve also got some staff issues with some of the team getting very sick of the amount of work they are expected to do (and justifiably so in some cases).  Endless meetings, often that don’t achieve anything …. anyway, that is the end of my rant … I know you guys can’t do anything about it (other than maybe offer a few sympathetic comments).

Is it just me or does it seem like ages since we’ve seen a new issue of a running magazine? I’m getting withdrawal symptoms. I think I’ve read every article in the last Runner’s World and RFYL mag about 7 times.

Boot Camp Day 1

Up at 5am to get myself off to the first day of Boot Camp. It was a poor showing, there was supposed to be 7 conscripts, but only 5 (4 guys and one gal) showed up. The first part is a bit of a “test” so that they can repeat the same exercise at the end of the 4 weeks to note improvements. This involved doing pushups until exhaustion, sit-ups (a certain way) until exhaustion, and a timed sprint lap of Flagstaff Gardens (about 1km). I failed miserably on the pushups and sit-ups, but was the first one home in the run lap – easy to see where my training has been lacking!

Then it was lots more push-ups, lunges, squats, sit-ups etc. inter mixed with jogs, sprints etc. then some nice stretches and a jog back to the gym at the end.

I mentioned to the Boot Camp leader Ben about my sore knee, so he modified a few of the exercises for me which was good, but sitting at my desk this afternoon it is a bit sore. I think I am going to rest it as much as possible this week. I was considering going into the R4K training session tonight, but think I’d be silly to do it. I think I’ll probably take Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as complete rest days this week, and only do the Boot Camps (no other running) on the other days. On Wednesday, Ben is going to tell me what we are going to do on Friday and I’ve told him, that depending on what it is, I may give Fridays session a miss. I want to have my knee rested for Sunday as best as possible.

President’s Award

First of all let’s finish off yesterday! Last night I attended a presentation night for the Greenvale Basketball Club. I was honoured to be presented with a “President’s Award” plaque for my services to the club. I resigned last year after 11 years on the committee (7 as treasurer & 4 as president). The current president made a really nice speech about all the things I’d done – it is really nice to be appreciated. I can hang my plaque on the wall next to my “Silver Jubilee Service Award” from the Broadmeadows Basketball Association I received in 2003 for “Services to Junior Basketball” – I was Junior Domestic Coordinator and Representative Boys Coordinator for a number of years at Broadmeadows and on their Board of Management for a few years too. I do miss that side of my basketball life a little bit, but to a certain degree I think I have replaced the time I used to spend on it, with my new fitness regime, so I think I’m in a better place now.

Today started off with the normal swim (60 laps) at the gym, then breakfast with my work colleague Cheryl as usual. Afterwards I walked into the city for about an hour and then returned home. On the way home I got one of those dreaded phone calls from our Network Control Centre in the US indicating we had network problems, but fortunately it was nothing serious and only took one more phone call to resolve.

This afternoon I went for an easy bike ride and an easy run. 13.5km on the bike, and 6km run at 5:58 pace.

R4K practice run

Todays shopping at the Vic Market didn’t take as long as usual as we’d decided not to buy too much and have a week of using up stuff from the freezer etc.

We went to Highpoint after lunch as Kate wanted to look at a place called Ruby Bar, where she is thinking of having her 18th birthday. It is scary to think my baby is nearly 18! My only purchase was another pair of Thorlos. I’ve decided I’m not going to run in anything else for a while to make sure I get no blisters. They are expensive, but in my opinion worth it. With my RACV discount at Rebel they were $23.

At about 3pm headed out for my run, planning on about 12km if the knee held up. I decided to make it a nice “easy” run, and to not take any music and try and concentrate on some of the “form techniques” I’ve been reading about in Chi Running and Mastering The Art of Running. It was a great run, I really enjoyed it and feel great afterwards. The knee was ok, just a couple of twinges when cornering, and the blister (which I’ve been smothering in BodyGlide at every opportunity) seems okay too, just started to feel it near the end. I ended up doing a R4K practice run, 15.2km in 1  hour 15 minutes (4:58 pace). I stopped running at 15.2km and walked the last half kilometre home.

Anyway, better go get ready to go out!

A tragedy, a fire, some rain and a HM entry…

What a tragedy in the Burnley tunnel today. I am one of those people who don’t particularly like driving through the tunnel at the best of times, but I think now will like it even less. As with all road deaths I’m thinking what a waste, and reflecting on how frightening it would have been for those who were evacuated from their cars and made to leave the tunnel. That said though, it seems that Citylink’s emergency response was excellent and the people evacuated were well looked after.

There were grass fires in Greenvale today and one of my work colleagues came up and told me about them and that houses were threatened. As our place backs onto a huge grass paddock, I was understandably worried. I rang Adrienne, but she wasn’t home, so I decided to drive home and check things out (I’m only 10 minutes away). As it turns out the fire was nowhere near our place, and by the time I got there Adrienne was home. Oh well, I had a cup of tea with my wife in the middle of the day, something I don’t normally get to do, and went back to work.

Great to see some rain eh, doesn’t seem like it is going to be the real downpour that we need though.

I entered the Run To The G Half Marathon (June 17th) today. I’m not 100% impressed with the fact that it is a 2 lap course, but I am keen to get 2 HMs under my belt prior to attempting my first full marathon at the Melbourne Marathon in October. At least the Run To The G is convenient, easy to get to, and you get your name in the paper!

I can’t believe that Courtney and Munnalitta won the challenge and will get a 1kg bonus. With the new pair having immunity, the chances of Damien/Laura or Marty/Pati getting eliminated seem high. If Courtney wins, I’ll ….., well I don’t know what I’ll do, but he had better not win.

I’ve decided to have today as a rest day, as the knee is still a little sore and to give the blister some more time to heal.

Edit: Just had a phone call inviting me out to dinner tomorrow night to a basketball club presentation night “as their guest”. I resigned from the committee last year. It is short notice, but will be good to see everyone again, and a free feed is never bad!

Injured? I hope not!

Played another game of sand volleyball tonight after work, and trying to be a hero and diving for a tough ball came down fairly heavily on my right knee. Grazed it a bit (amazing how abrasive that sand is), but more worrying is it feels quite bruised inside (although no obvious bruising on the outside). Worse part was I never got anywhere the ball – just ended up sprawled across the sand looking like an idiot! We ended up losing the game, but it won’t affect our position on the ladder (this was the last game before finals, which are next week).

Went for a short run very close after tea – which is never really a good idea – it was just 6km at just under 6:00 min/km pace, including a fair few walk breaks because the knee was a bit sore. I’ve also got a bit of a blister in between my big and second toe for some reason which is annoying.

Just what I need the week before a race, a sore knee and blisters

Have iced the knee and it doesn’t feel too bad – hopefully it will be alright.

Has anyone tried those socks that have separate bits for each toe? If so, would you recommend them? Any other ideas for treatment of blisters between the toes?

Got a new battery for my Stride Sensor today, and it worked okay tonight.