Great weekend at Mooloolaba!!

Thursday - 7k's @ 5:00 mins/km
Friday - 4k's @ 5:00mins/km
Saturday - 1ok's @ 5:00mins/km

Contrary to concern that my lack of posting in recent days could be due to another breakdown(Thanks for your kind thoughts, Jodie!) I'm in fact in great shape after getting away to Mooloolaba for a few days.

After an easy 4k's on the tready Friday AM, MJ and I dropped my Mum of at Brisbane International for her own 7 day getaway to Bangkok and Hong Kong. But as there were no big races to watch in Bangkok this week, MJ and I jumped into her Honda Accord Euro and cruised up the coast at midday on Friday. Courtesy of the generosity of USM Events extended to Run For Your Life contributers, we checked into the Aegean at the southern end of the Espalande for the first of our two nights complimentary stay. It wasn't long before I found myself at the starting line of the Asics Mooloolaba 5k Twilight Run. Unfortunately, instead of awaiting the starters horn from behind the starting line with a surge of adrenalin coursing through my veins, I was standing right next to the starter and MC, Coach Pat, with my stopwatch, clipboard and pen all poised! The race itself was no contest with occassional Pat Carroller, Al Stevenson too classy for the field in his last hitout before the World Cross Country Champs. Nevertheless, there was lots to report on and I won't have any writers block when putting my race report together for this event!

The next morning saw me on the beach to watch the Mooloolaba 1000 Ocean Swim with the boys from Northies - Rooboy and Matt - also holidaying up the coast for the Tri. MJ and Jay then joined us for lunch at Bellissimo's on the Espalande - it was very touristy and enjoyable to eat lunch at a roadside cafe with the Espalande closed to traffic and triathletes and holidaymakers taking over the Espalande! MJ and I then worked off lunch by going for a 10k run along the Espalande at our respective paces, runing into Coach Pat watching the surfers on the beach taking on the generous swells whipped up from Cyclone Wati hovering off Fraser Island. At the height of the tri weekend, this is a great run if you don't mind dodging pedestrians and cyclists - very scenic and full of atmosphere! And the shins didn't give me any grief at all! As soon as the run and the obligatory shower were done with, it was off to the VIP Marquee again courtesy of our friends at USM Events where we watched the cycling criterium from the best seats in the house. I must confess that in our 45 min stay, I made a handful of trips to the courtesy fridge to sample some Coronas - reporting is thirsty work, you know ;-)

After watching Buster Mottram's agonising fall in the Men's 150om Final at the Comm Games, MJ and I went to an Italian restaurant Amphora's for dinner. I had what started out as a delicious duck risotto, but I had to retire hurt three quarters of the way through the meal as it was just too filling - those Italians don't mind their olive oil!!

Up early the next morning to cheer on the likes of Jan, Tori, Ruthie, Scott B and Steve G in the age group triathlon before we headed back to Brissy. The end of a great weekend? No way! MJ and I then headed off to the Paddo where we met Clairie and Al and took them to Suncorp Stadium to watch the Broncos throw off some shaky early season form and cane the Eels 30-10!!! Met us with Tesso and Gary M in the Members Lounge at half time. Tesso got lost trying to find us - but as far as I can tell, did not do an impromptu tempo run to make up for the lost time ;-)

Just a great weekend - really looking forward to training with vigour this week after the welcome freshen up!

Tuesday - Its all happening

9k’s – 6k’s @ 5:00 mins/km, 3k’s @ 4:30 mins/km

Ventured into the City for my fortnightly speedwork session with the PCRG and got through that ok – the hill leading up to All Hallows was a blast and I’m looking forward to tackling it fully fit!

The afternoon saw my go out to UQ to see Ash for some gait analysis and glute firing drills. Ash was pleased with my progress and I’ve definitely come a long way since I first saw him. It was good to break out into a full sprint on the UQ track and I’ve gotta say that my stride feels a lot better at 3:20 pace than 5:00 pace and the film of my gait confirmed that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that I should do all my running at 3:20 pace! The pro and cons that came out of the session were:

PROS
Overstriding continues to be reduced and at full speed and 4:15 speed, I was landing the feet close to the correct spot under me, reducing stress on the shins.
Pronation is now virtually non existent with the orthotics in.
Glute firing drills are slowly increasing my capacity to run with a good stride.

CONS
My hips and upper body continue to frequently buckle at impact, even when landing the feet in the correct position.
When striding out and with my feet in the air, my feet are flopping all over the place before impact. They can actually flop to the left and then right in the air in the quarter second between lift off and impact! Whilst the feet not pronating at impact, they occasionally land in awkward positions and contribute to a stride that is overall unefficient.
Overstriding continues to be a bit of a problem at 5:00 min pace putting stess on the shins.

Wrapped up the day with a Brisbane Marathon Sponsors function at the Regatta where I represtented Run For Your Life. Ended up talking to the Regatta GM, Andrew Ford for about 20 minutes on coporate functions and the brewery wars before I escaped and hung out with Clairie, Rick and Clare G for a while. Managed to convince Qld Athletics to get off their arese and contribute to R4YL so it was a productive night and the free beers didn’t hurt either!

Km's this week - 9
Km's this month - 76
Km's this year - 189

Sunday - Great run!!

9k's @ 5:00 mins/km

Had a fantastic end to a weekend that saw me spend about 22 hours in the office due to leave and illness at work. Started my Sunday watching the Commonwealth marathons on the tv next to my desk and work and geees, wasn’t I urging the amazing Kerryn McCann home in those thrilling finishing stages whilst showing a complete lack of consideration for my work colleagues! They should have been watching the race anyway!!

Planned toget to Fitness First at noon for my run, but it was not until 4:15 pm that I finally made it to the tready adorned in a pair of chocolate brown business socks after I had forgotten my Thorlos…..hhhhmmm – not a good look. But I couldn’t care less as I got through my best run in a month, 45 mins of hardly any shin discomfort whilst the fitness was much improved also! Fantastic stuff! The HR data will be useless though as the HR shot up every time Kerryn’s Marathon win was replayed on the tv’s.

Lets hope I can continue the momentum as I bump my mileage up to 30k’s for this week. That’s 9k at Pat’s on Tuesday, 7 on Thurs, 4 on Friday and 10 next Sunday. Bring it on!

Km's this week - 27
Km's this month - 67
Km's this year - 180

On go the Skins.....

5k's @ 5:00 mins/km

Its been a few months now since I started wearing long Skins as a recovery aid - mainly when sleeping the night after a run. However, due to the Skins being itchy when my legs are in motion, I had not yet got around to doing a recovery run in them. Today I did just that and the 5k's I clocked up on the tready this morning featured the usual mild discomfort, that the Skins didn't alleviate. I won't be writing off the Skins as a option for running in but will now trial long socks as worn by Eloise Wellings. http://www.athletics.org.au/athletes/profiles/photos.cfm?ObjectID=469
These long socks are claimed to reduce calf issues they follow the theory that centers around the belief that if you contain the calf muscle in a sock then the only stress it is exposed to is the actual forward propulsion. They believe that when the calf is not contained in a sock it does extra work such as the muscle flapping which could potentially create extra stress for the shins. http://www.oxysox.com/media.htm

Gees, I would be quite a sight if I ended up having to wearand race in these socks for the remainder of my career!!! Long white socks, white headband - I could be the most recognisable runner in races around town!!

Km's this week - 18
Km's this month - 58
Km's this year - 171

When in doubt......move forward!!!

7k's at 5:00 mins/km

Another solid run in the bank. Not entirely a discomfort free run as far as the shins are concerned , but by no means worrying. Interestingly, the HR was at least five beats per minute higher this morning, presumably due to the consumption of four beers last night. As I start to get more HR data, some interesting patterns are emerging that should help my training in future when I'm back to full mileage and focusing on a race.

One thing that I've really been thinking about a lot lately is that if and when the condition of my shins deteriorates again, I will not automatically take at least a week off - I've already done that ten times and whilst I won't say it hasn't worked, it certainly hasn't achieved a great deal. In future, I will be more willing to flirt with that 'inflexsion point' that is the line dividing shin splints from a stress fracture. This is not to say that I will do anything reckless. By all means I will miss a session if I have to or reduce it, but I will then go all out in the rehab between that session and the next session in order to keep my training up. To often, when in doubt with my shins, I have taken a step back. Now I'm gonna take a leaf out of Langy's book and "when in doubt....MOVE FORWARD!!!"

Km's this week - 13
Km's this month - 53
Km's this year - 166

Tuesday

6k's @ 5:00 mins/km

Hit the Fitness First tready on my way home from work and enjoyed a cruisey run.

Km's this week - 6
Km's this month - 46
Km's this year - 159

Sunday - Bribie Tri Race 4

7k's @ 5:00mins/km

Northies maintained our unbeaten record over the sprint distance of 750/20/5 by winning the final leg of the Bribie Tri this AM. RooBoy took advantage of a strong current covering 750m in less than 8 minutes and was second the whole way, putting in his best swim for Northies in two years - top stuff Mate!! Despite being second out of the water, RooBoy lost two places and a few seconds on the 150 m run back into transition. Matt then took over on the bike leg with a fourth placing that put daylight between us and the next male team. With yours truly still taking it easy, I got my brother Adam to run for Northies for the second time and he set out for his 5k leg with the Male teams championship in the bag but the added challenge of making sure that the leading mixed team did not beat us. No worries, Adam ran down the leading mixed team with a k to go on his way to 18:51 - a huge effort coming off a flu and a disrupted preparation. Inspirational stuff!!

I then raced straight to FF to put in 7k's with the legs going ok and then it was back to SportsCentre for the traditional BBQ prior to the Broncos season opener. Unfortunately, the results was a shocker and the Broncs are set to take a while to get out of the blocks this year - still, better to start slow, than finish slow!

Km's this week - 24
Km's this month - 41
Km's this year - 153

Friday - Easy 4k's

4k's @ 5:00min/km

Easy recovery run.

Km's this week - 17
Km's this month - 34
Km's this year - 146

Thursday - 5k's

5k's @ 5:00 mins/km

Did an easy 5k's on the tready. All is well - running is improving as is the HR. Core strengthening is going excellent as are glute firing ex's and foot strengthening ex's. Whilst I had earlier planned to quickly increase my weekly mileage to 36k's before implementing the no more than 10% increase per week rule, I am not implementing the rule starting at 21 k's for last week. It'll take me 11 weeks to get back to 70k at this rate.

Km's this week - 13
Km's this month - 30
Km's this year - 142

Pat Carroll Running Group - 3K TT

3K TT 13:20, 3k warm up, 2k warm down

Made my first appearance at Pats' since the Christmas run last year - gees, its been a while!! With the low grade virus hopefully banished forever and my mileage slowly increasing, I should be able to resume my fortnightly sessions at Pat's whilst I continue to do 90% of my running on the tready. All going well, I will upgrade to weekly sessions around May. It was good to catch up with everyone and see that the Group has grown by about 20 people in my absence. I was so busy talking with people that I completely forgot to stretch both before and after the session, so will do it in the office as soon as I finish writing this!

I rocked up at the session with the intention of running the same 5 min k's that I've been doing for the last few weeks at the gym. But on the warm up, Pat was sledging me about running so slowly and by the time I got to the starting line, I had changed my mind and decided to run 14 mins for the 3k's, just to see how it felt. 400m into the TT, with Tesso and Tori just in front of me pacing a sub 13:30 bus, I decided to help them out with the pacing and upgraded my target to sub 13:30 and did it easily. The shins felt good today and there was little discomfort during or after the run. If I feel similarly good after my next non tready run in a fortnight, whilst feeling some discomfort on the tready, I might consider ceasing or reducing treadmill running for a while, just to see if it makes a difference.

Anyway, whilst I was cruising along this morning, I had plenty of time to cheer everyone on - stacks of PB's were run out there today - too many to mention(but I should mention Clairie and Ally - well done gals!!!) A special mention to Gary M who ran a mighty 3k's trimming two seconds off the existing Group record - from 9:29 to 9:27. Unfortunately for Gary, he can't claim the record as it had already been broken 39 secs ealier by virgin PCRG time trialler, former National 1500m Champion Al Stevenson!!! Al is representing Australia at the World Cross Country Champs early in April and it'll be great if he can come along to the occasional session or TT and add some class and speed to the Group. The only downside is that its gonna take me a while to break Al's new Group record of 8:50 and he could potentially lower it to the low 8 minute mark if he decides to get serious!!!

I better get over these shin probs quick smart........

Km's this week - 8
Km's this month - 25
Km's this year - 137

Sunday 'long' run

Sunday Long Run - 35 mins, 7k @ 5:00 mins/km

An early wakeup call this morning and for the first time I was required to take an umbrella to a race with me, this time, the International Women's Day 5k in Brisbane with the Gold Coast's Jessica Gilfillan winning from Clare Geraghty. Again, gloomy and drizzling conditions prevailed, making it hard for me to jot notes on my clipboard, record splits on my Timex and hold the bloody umbrella against the stiff wind!! Still, I did my duty and another possible R4YL report waits, if the organisers can provide me with the official finishing details and some photographs.

Following a shift at work, hit FF on the way home for 35 mins on the tready. Interestingly a pattern had developed the last few runs, whereupon, I have little shin discomfort whilst running, fairly significant discomfort for five minutes after I stop running and then little or no discomfort after that. It clearly differs from my usual pattern of shin probs and all the detail has been noted in my log book. Will be interesting to see how I fare with my next few runs. On the postive side, the HR improved significantly today, down to 152-155 for most of the later stages of my reps. Still a long way of where I used to be, but a positive gain.

Life's good.....sensational even!!

Km's this week - 21
Km's this month - 17
Km's this year - 129

Friday - Telstra A-Series Brisbane(no, I wasn't racing!)

Friday Recovery Run , 2 x 10 mins @ 5:00 mins/km with 2 min WR

Knocked out a 4 k recovery run this arvo along with 50 mins of core strength work - the body is definitely starting to feel stronger and the virus is closer to becoming a distant memory.

Following the run, I headed out to QEII for Athletics Australia's Telstra A-Series meet held in gloomy conditions with constant drizzling ran more akin to Melbourne than Brisbane. Using my media accreditation from AA, I gained access to the Media Room and made myself comfortable whilst the early events were in progress. Peter Meares proved himself useful by raiding the kitchen and obtaining dinner for the media contingent so I tucked into chicken, ham, salad and potatoes washed down with Musashi spring water, a plentiful supply of which was available in the Media Room. I think I can get used to these perks ;-) Introduced myself to Courier Mail journo Paul Malone and had a bit of a chat whilst big name such as Linford Christie socialised nearby.

Despite the wet conditions, it was a fair night of athletics and I got some content from the 800 and 1500m races that may form the basis of a half page R4YL article if its required. I also got brushed off by an Aussie Commonwealth games rep disappointed in their performance and not in a talking mood - that' s journalism!!! It was a fun night and a learning experience.


Km's this week - 14
Km's this month - 10
Km's this year - 122

Another easy run

25 mins @ 5:02 mins/km with two 2 min WR's

Hit the tready this morning feeling positive. Except for feeling a little fluey on Monday morning, I've felt no signs of the dreaded low grade virus this week. Had a solid 40 mins of core strength work last night adding some of the exercises Aza showed me on Saturday along with some glute firing exercises - it was all good! Rolled along this morning fairly comfortably - some minor discomfort in the lower right tibia towards the end of the session.

Planning to do 21k's this week, 2 hours of core strength and 40 mins of glute firing ex's. Hopefully I can build on that in the coming well. The length of time I've taken to recover from this virus has well and truly sunk my GC Marathon aspirations for 2006. The reality is that I've done less mileage this year than Tesso did in one night at Caboolture!! I am now aiming simply to build my mileage back up to 70km's a week and string some consistent training together. We'll go from there.

Km's this week - 10
Km's this month - 5
Km's this year - 118

Tuesday - Easy run

25 mins @ 5:05 mins/km with three 2 min WR's

Hit Fitness First on my way home from work on Tuesday and eased my way through the run, getting home just in time to watch Game 3 of the NBL Finals and the Tigers end the reign of the cheating and whinging King$.

Km's this week - 5
Km's this month - 44
Km's this year - 113

Sunday - Weekend at Woodgate

Friday 10/5/10 mins @ 5:10 mins/km with 1 min Walking Recoveries
Saturday 3 x 10 mins@ about 5:00 mins/km with 2 min Walking Recoveries

Ditched my Thursday run after feeling fluey - am clearly still not over that low grade virus. Bloody hell! The effects continue to come and go around once or twice a week. But there was only optimism as I headed north on Friday for a weekend at Woodgate with some of the Pat Carroller boys, Langy, Slash and Aza - nothing like the rehabilitating effects of a good fresh sea breeze!

Langy had already headed up to Woodgate (which is about 20k's south of Bundaberg as the crow flies) on Monday to enjoy some 'me' time and fortunately, his tinnie broke down in the local estuary on the first day ensuring that any mechanical problems were well and truly overcome by the time Slash, Aza and myself arrived at Woodgate on Friday night after a 3hr 50 min drive in Aza's Prado. We had a great two story brick house on absolute beach front that Langy had obtained for $380 a week - not bad for a house allegedly worth $1.1 million. With the northern tip of Fraser Island about 80k's out to sea but out of sight below the horizon, it wasn't much of a surf beach that greeted us but the swells were rolling nicely. Langy was already burnt to a crisp and had the muddies and fish in the freezer to prove that he had been out in the sun much of the week - as if we couldn't tell! Now, anyone who knows me well will tell you with amusement that I am not a big fan of eating fish and whilst I make exceptions for prawns, I dislike most forms of seafood. However, I can now make an exception for any Singapore Chilli Mudcrab that is cooked by Slash after his fine efforts in the kitchen on Friday night! The well flavoured muddie was certainly an improvement on my previous experiences of tasteless fish slung into a fying pan with some butter. As is typical with any first night away with the boys, a generous quantity of alcohol was consumed throughout the dinner and quite a few hours of playing Up and Down the River - a version of the 500 card game. Naturally, I ensured that the background atmosphere was enhanced by bringing up some Deek, Pat and track race videos for us to watch. Its always a hoot having a few drinks with team mates and you rarely fail to learn something new about them - for example, do not talk with Slash about Kerry Packer's tax contributions or alleged lack thereoff!!!

A rather slow start to the day followed the next morning as we all nursed our respective hangovers. Still we manged to cast a line by 8am so it wasn't too bad. Predictably, despite having never fished before and taking time to master the art of casting, yours truly caught the first fish of the day - a small garfish from the surf. After lunch we moved to the estuary with the tide coming in and my touch improved as I proceeded to bag two bream and a butter bream bringing my total to four for the day. Langy also caught four, fishing with a light rod and reel like myself whilst Slash and Aza fishing with bigger rods were out of luck. Better luck next time fellas!! Late Saturday arvo saw Langy and Slash go check the crabpots whilst Aza and I did a 40 min core strength workout(ignoring much ridicule from Slash and Langy!) and then went for an easy 30 min run on the quiet espalande which featured the beautiful sights and soothing sounds of the ocean on one side and beachfront homes and grazing kangaroos on the other, including two kangas that would have been at least five foot tall!! Shins handled the run ok but the heart rate was forgettable - thanks to the alcoholic indulgences of the previous night.

I was on crabpot duties with Langy for Sun AM so was out of bed at 6am to jump in the tinnie and go check em with Langy - several females were released and only one male was snared during a pleasant cruise down the estuary and creek. A few hours later, I pulled up the stumps on my 40 hour getaway and we all made our journey back to civilisation. It was a great getaway and Langy is optimistically talkiing about making it an annual event - hope it comes to fruition. At least I now had a few stories to go alongside the countless stories MJ had waiting for me about life in the Army Reserves when we caught up in the arvo.


Km's this week - 15
Km's this month - 39
Km's this year -108

Delayed run

4k's at 5:10 mins/km

Wasn't happy with the intermittent shin discomfort over the 48 hours since's Sunday's run, so delayed the Tuesday run and did it this morning instead. Rolled along fairly comfortably on the tready, but there are still a few things that are not quite right. I will continue to gently persist with my comeback.

Km's this week - 4
Km's this month - 28
Km's this year - 97

Sunday - Bribie Tri - Race 3

7k's @ 5:05 mins/km with 2 min WR's

Northies competed in the third leg of the Bribie Tri this AM. RooBoy dragged his troublesome hamstrings through a 1k swim whilst hardly using his legs to kick through the water. Surviving the run back to transition without hearing that dread "twang" from the hamstrings, RooBoy tagged our Mr Consistency, Matt, who put in his usual solid leg on the bike before my replacement and Northies debutant, Langy took over the reins with us in about 7th or 8th spot. Langy was feeling good and looking forward to the 8k run leg and had worked his way up to 4th or 5th after the first lap. An exciting finish then followed with the third place mixed team contestant, a peroxide blonde bloke,going through the 7k mark 50 seconds ahead of Langy, but clearly struggling and hardly making 5 min pace. I tried to contribute to the negative thoughts no doubt circulating through Peroxide's mind by saying 'Bloody hot out here today, isn't it?' as he staggered past me. Then Langy flew past and I urged him to lift the pace and run down Peroxide! Langy reckoned he had Peroxide under control at the 500m mark but Peroxide lifted when the finish line came into view and managed to slip home 15 metres ahead of Langy who hit the line in 31:15 for a pleasing run. Northies probably finished 4th overall and 2nd in the male teams category behind the winning team led by fellow Pat Carroller, Steve L. We've pretty much wrapped up the Championship with one race to go in three weeks time. Big thanks to Langy for contributing to the Northies cause.

A bbq at RooBoy's place capped of a great morning and with my Sunday run yet to come, I got stuck into the fruit platter rather than the snags platter. With intermittent shin discomfort the previous 48 hours, I reduced my planned 10k's on the tready to 7k's and managed to get through it ok. My feet are just about used to the orthotics. My shins are not yet free of discomfort and I'm hoping that its more of a niggling thing that comes with commencing regular running after a break than anything more serious. Time will tell.

And I can't sign off without mentioning the great time I had on Friday night at an engagement party for one of my old mate's Dan and his fiancee, Sheridan. It was good to catch up with a lot of old faces, some of whom I haven't seen for a while. Interestingly, I was introduced to a committee member from the Moreton Bay Roadrunners who is involved in organising the Jetty to Jetty and inquired about the chances of me giving the J2J a plug on Run For Your Life mag. These kind of requests are starting to become common. The only downside of the evening was the fact that after presenting the happy couple with a gift of a really nice 8'10 silver photo frame, I've now run out of the silver photo frames that I purchased in bulk several years, specifically to give away as engagement party presents. A shopping trip will be required to replenish my stock :( Fortunately, I have at least five cut down and regripped golf clubs for newborn baby presents, that should last me a few years yet. Sadly, I have yet to think of a suitable wedding present that can be bulk purchased - if any of you smart gals out there bulk buy wedding presents, be sure to let me know what are some suitable options.


Km's this week - 21
Km's this month - 24
Km's this year - 93

Building momentum

Reps of 1/2/2/1k's at 5:05 mins km with 2 min Walking Recovery

Again woke up feeling good and ready to seize the day!! After parking at Fitness First, I was walking into the club when I stopped to say 'Aaaah shit, I forgot my orthotics' .........hang on.... I'm wearing my orthotics!!! I just couldn't feel them!! After that positive sign, I settled straight into the session and my arches hardly felt the orthotics - am very pleased that the feet are adjusting quickly. Doing ten consecutive minutes today for the first time in three weeks saw the HR in the neighborhood of 155bpm and I've clearly lost a good deal of strength and fitness, but nevertheless its coming back quickly.

Just so bloody pleased and grateful that I have my health back and looking forward to a rapid improvement from here on. Of course, I won't be bumping up the mileage too quickly though.

Km's this week - 14
Km's this month - 17
Km's this year - 86

Tuesday - Making progress

4 x 1k's @ 5::05 mins/km with 2 min WR

Got a nice little session in the bank this arvo. There was significant discomfort in the arch of the left foot for the first five minutes and I couldn't wait for the walking recovery! Fortunately, there was little discomfort for the last 15 mins of the session. I think that's a good sign. Better to have 5 mins discomfort and then 15 without rather than 15 mins without discomfort ending with 5 mins of discmfort. There was only some intermittent shin discomfort. HR ranged between 140-150 maxing out at 151 on the last rep, recovering to 101 after my final 2 min WR. Still a little high, but losing fitness could have contributed here as much as the virus did.

Just as important, I woke up full of energy and vitality, was in the office at 7:30am, ploughed my way through a productive day and then hit the tready. Gee's, its good to get over that damn virus!

Km's this week - 8
Km's this month - 11
Km's this year - 80

Monday - On the way back

4 x 1k @ 5:10 mins/km

Hit the tready on my way home from work for a tentative hitout - only my third run in more than two weeks and my first serious run with the orthotics. There was the expected discomfort to the arches of my soles, moreso on the left foot than right foot. The discomfort was more pronounced earlier in the run than later, so hopefully that is a good sign. There was some slight, but intermittent shin discomfort that I was expecting and the shins pulled up well. The HR feedbank from the tready said I maxed out at 145-147 after the 2nd and 3rd reps but eased to 142 after the last rep. That is too high, but again, probably to be expected given my fitness levels. I will be wearing MJ's Polar HR Monitor for the next few weeks to act on Dr Friis' suggestion of keeping a close eye on the HR in my recovery.

As for the virus - I think its pretty close to zapped. Today and Sunday, I was just brimming with vitality and energy and that's been the first time in a while I've felt that way. Another easy 4k run on the cards for Tuesday.

Onward and upward......

Km's this week - 4
Km's this month - 7
Km's this year - 76

Delayed comeback

1km @ 5:00mins km

After feeling healthy, spritely and enthusiastic yesterday, I was keen to do 5-6k's this morning and start another comeback, but I awoke with a HR that settled at 55(up from the usual 48-52) after being a little higher when I first slapped the Polar on my chest. I then started to feel fluey and suffered from a runny nose after some exposure to air con. I decided it wasn't going to be my day, the virus isn't quite gone and I would take it easy. But I still went for a 5 min run, with the orthotics in.

The good news is that after 200 metres of running, the shins settled down and handled the workload well. In fact, the shins have given me no trouble for the last 5 days or so and its only the virus that is delaying my comeback now. I blew heavily after that 5 min run this morning as if I had run 3:30! I've bowed to the inevitable and asked Langy to run my leg for Northies in the 3rd race of the Bribie Tri next Sunday, so c'mon Langy!!!

Wore the orthotics for a total of 3 hours today and apart from a few aches, the feet handled it well - all is good on that front.



Km's this week - 1
Km's this month - 3
Km's this year - 72

'O' for Orthotics

Started yesterday by depriving myself of breaky as I finished my 13 hour fast and went to have my blood test. After lunch, it was off to UQ to see Ash where I was presented with my orthotics along with instructions on how to break them in - also hit the track wearing my trousers, business shirt and running shoes with orthotics inserted underneath the inner soles of my running shoes. The orthotics are quite firm and really do a good job of preventing pronation and in fact I felt like I was supinating as Ash monitored my running with his trusty video camera before pronouncing satisfaction with the correction the orthotics offered my impact.

Interestingly, the orthotics(which were custom made to my foot) came in half a size smaller than the size 11.5 US Brooks running shoes that I am wearing. It raises the possibility that I'm wearing shoes half a size too large and perhaps my feet are slipping around inside the shoe and contributing to shin splints? I ran the 2004 Gold Coast Marathon in the same size shoes and my felt swelled up and started pushing against the toe box leading to blood blisters on two toes. As a result, I've always assumed that 11.5 US is the smallest size I can wear and going down half a size could present problems. The size of the orthotics I've been given has now changed my thinking. It also helps that the memories of those blisters have faded!! I'll probably trial a pair half a size smaller soon, to see how they go.

Wore the orthotics in and old pair of runners for one hour last night. Up to two hours tonight, when I will wear them the Bullets sudden death QF against Perth. GO BULLETS!

Visit to Dr Peter Friis

Ducked out of work at lunchtime and had my best run in a long time, getting green lights all the way from Breakfast Creek to Wickham Tce in the City, where I saw Broncos doctor, Dr Friis at the Private Hospital. Dr Friis pronounced all my vitals unremarkable and in good shape and speculated that my chest fluttering complaint could have been caused by twitching muscles for one thing. He said it was not out of the ordinary for a virus to hang around as long as it has for me and has sent me away for the obligatory blood test which I will get done tomorrow morning instead of attending the 3KTT. Dr Friis concluded that the horse had probably bolted as far as my virus is concerned and that I am over the worst. Dr Friis advised me to pay close attention to my HR during running and recovery explaining how it could enhance my comeback and ensure that I don't overdo it.

Whilst I didn't get a great deal out of this visit as far as my present condition is concerned, I was impressed by Dr Friis nonetheless and it will be good to have a Sports Physician on the burgeoning roll call of medical specialists on Team Matty.

Felt better today overall than I have in a week. Will try some core strengthening work tomorrow night and hopefully have a crack at some running on Thursday. Time is already running out for the Gold Coast Marathon!

Saturday/Sunday - Caboolture Dusk to Dawn

After watching the Bullets lock up sixth place in the playoffs with a 43 point drubbing of Adelaide, I was off to my old stomping ground of Caboolture for the Dusk to Dawn 6 and 12 hours ultra event for R4YL reporting and Team Tesso crewing duties. The race was held at the Caboolture Historical Village, not far from my old primary school, St Peters which I attended from 84-87 being ranked #2 in the school at cross country.

The Dusk to Dawn was a great event with runners endlessly circulating a 500m compact dirt track through the Village. The highlight of the night was definitely Tesso's 3rd outright and 1st female in the 12 hr event. It was just amazing and inspiring to watch her on her way to rack up over 100k's and look strong and comfortable doing it albeit with some shaky legs in the last few hours. After five hours, I was tired, had work on Sunday and left at 3am feeling guilty as Tesso still had to run another few hours!!!! Big efforts from Clairie, Chelle, Jess K and Phil K rounded off a great night.

It'll be a long time before I venture over to the "dark side" of ultra running if at all, but gees, this event would be a fun one to do a two hour relay leg for.

Friday - No end in sight to this cursed virus

2 x 1k @ 5:10 mins/km

Hit the tready this morning with no plans other than to cautiously test where my recovery is at. HR registered 147 after the 2nd easy k and it felt like it too. I won't run or do anything remotely physical until next Tuesday at the earliest.

Km's this week - 5
Km's this month - 2
Km's this year - 71

Good news.....

I've taken the day of work and spent it relaxing watching some DVD's from Season 2 of the West Wing - great show!

Not once have I experienced any significant fluttering in my chest region, or now that I think of a better description, regular mini surges of adrenalin confined to the chest region.

I've contacted Sports Doctor Peter Friis who is also the Broncos doctor and whom Langy recently visited, but am still waiting for his secretary to get back with an appointment time......... I think his secretary needs to be fired. BREAKING NEWS - I've just heard back from the Secretary. I've got an appt for 12:30pm next Monday. I suspect the horse has bolted as far as my symptoms are concerned but will still go along for the obligatory blood test etc, so we can confirm that this 17 day low grade virus that recently ailed me is gone. It also be good to see if Friis can suggest in retrospect what might have happened. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that all this is a chest infection of some kind from that virus I had. At the very least, I'm in a position to add a reputable Sports Doc to Team Matty! If I have any concerns over the next few days, I'll take them to the hospital or local medical centre where there is an ECG.

A big thanks to all those who expressed concern, notably Clairie, Tesso and Ally(you gals rock!) and offered me the benefit of their wisdom along with some forthright and no nonsense advice. Thanks also to Coach Pat who offered sympathies in his own special way saying "You're probably just in love mate!"

Thanks all, I really appreciate it - hoping to get to the 3K TT next Tuesday and cruise along at the back with a DOMS afflicted Tesso!

Another setback.....

3k's @ 5:00 mins/km

At the rate I’m going, people will begin to think I’m a hypochondriac :( The latest debacle has been a few weeks in the making. For the last fortnight and in particular, the last few days, I’ve been intermittently experincing a fluttering(for want of a better word) feeling in my chest. Imagine that light headed feeling you get when you are feeling faint or when you are very drunk and transfer it to the chest region only and you get an idea of the weird sensations I’ve been feeling. I’ve slapped the HR monitor on a few times when I’ve been experiencing this and the HR has been normal. I can only speculate that the virus that I battled for 17 days before shaking off, is still lingering.

This morning, for the first time since joining the Pat Carroll Running Group, I slept through both my alarm and Langy’s textie informing me he couldn’t make it and wouldn’t need a lift(phew!). I woke up too late to dash to the session and decided instead to deposit another 2hrs into the sleep bank.

Went to Fitness First on my way to work for a tready session and was experiencing the fluttering chest sensations in the leadup. I had a bad feeling about how the session was going to unfold and so it proved. I managed 2k’s warm up before it became apparent that my breathing was laboured. After a five minute walking recovery, I tried another k before getting cold feet and pulling the plug on the session. Prolonged and intensive running really isn’t a good idea the way my chest feels. Right now, I’m sitting at my desk at work, feeling pretty ordinary and worrying about these chest sensations – If I don’t come good in the next few hours, will head home to bed. If I can’t shake it very soon, a visit to the GP or Sports Doc and some tests will be in order.

Km's this week - 3
Km's this month - 69
Km's this year - 69

Countdown to Gold Coast Marathon 2006!!!!

As you all know, my primary objective this year is to beat shin splints, but nevertheless, I will continue to set other goals in the meantime, starting with a sub 3 Hr effort at the Gold Coast Marathon for the first half of the year! This Marathon will be a stepping stone to my attempt for Sub 2:45 and a national ranking at the Gold Coast in 2007. However due to the shin splints battle and my committment to easing back into speedwork, I won't be able to do kind of preparation that I would undertake when fully fit so will have to work around that. Pending discussions with Coach Pat, I expect the key aspects of my preparation will be:

* Carefully build up my weekly mileage from 24k's this week till about 45-50 by the end of February and then continue to increase it cautiously in March to 65-70k's a week by the end of the month, including a 2hr Sunday long run. 90% of my running will continue to be done on the treadmill till April.
* Commence a 17 week program from Monday 6th March.
* It is unlikely I'll be able to do Pat's preferred Brisbane Half and Doomben 10,000 lead up races as the Brisbane Half in particular will be too early for me so I might have to settle for the half marathon during the Warwick Pentathlon or the SMH Half Marathon followed by a 10k at Brisbane Road Runners four weeks out from GC.
* Continue my core strengthening and stability work over the next two months before raising the bar in April to hire a specialist PT of the highest standard and/or act on Bruno's suggestion of doing one on one sessions with Pilates practioner and former ballerina, Nicole Popov at the Gabba Sports Medicine Clinic(ok boys, you can laugh now, but I'm deadly serious!). Some of the best Marathoners in the Group such as Phil K, Jess K, Daniel T, Peter H, Glenda and Tesso are all rock solid and/or carry zilch excess fat and you don't need a rocket science to tell you those kind of bodies increase your strength and endurance for a Marathon.
* Maintain a rigorous but healthy eating regime from April on. Alochol intake will be scaled back from April and all but eliminated in June.
* Speedwork pace will gradually be increased to 3:50 mins/km, but will not exceed that speed till May. From the first Tuesday in May I will use the last nine weeks before the Marathon to increase my speedwork to 3:30 mins/km, but no faster(naturally, I'll throw in hideously short recoveries!!). This is the riskiest part of my preparation because I will be running the Marathon only 45 seconds per k faster than the top speed I will reach in speedwork, but if Glenda can do it, then so can I! I will be speaking to Pat about adding a tempo run or rolling hills run to my program to offset my reduced intensity at speedwork. And of course, I could always do longer runs or an extra twice a day run :) I don't care if my shins don't give me any grief between now and June, I've broken down on no less than three occasions whilst busting a gut running sub 3:20 pace and I want to be absolutely sure that I'm over the shin splints and have completely eliminated my overstriding problem before running that fast again.

BRING IT ON!!!!

Sunday Long Run

4 x 10 mins, 2 min walking recoveries

Big day at work yesterday in the office from 8am till 1:30am. Came home and got 7.5 hours sleep before heading to the gym where I had another good session rolling along at 5:00 pace. Time really seemed to fly and before I knew it, it was time to stop running. I felt I could have comfortably continued for another 30 minutes but after missing 17 days of running, I'm coming back carefully. Shins felt good throughout and the upper body felt strong.

Km's this week - 24
Km's this month - 66
Km's this year - 66

Friday - Golf and recovery run

3 x 10 mins, 2 min walking recovery

Started the day with my first round of golf in nine months, at Redland Bay with a few of the boys from work. Shot 104 and came home 2 over par for the last four holes after I started hitting all my approach shots within five metres of the flag. I was pleased that my fundamentals were sound after such a long break, but my touch with the chipping around the greens was poor and cost me dearly. On several occasions during the round, particularly after a good shot, I briefly thought 'gees, how much better could I be if I practiced seriously?' before I shooshed those thoughts away. I'm a runner now!!!! No other sport is getting in my way again and I have the rest of my life to get a single figure handicap!!

Drove home via Fitness First and put in a conservative but excellent session on the tready. Feeling very positive.

Km's this week - 16
Km's this month - 58
Km's this year - 58

Thursday - Two in a row

3 x 10 mins, 2 min walking recovery

Covered the Brisbane Australia Day Fun Run for R4YL this morning - only a handful of Pat Carrollers contested it and on a twisty, crowded and technical course with the race being run at 8am in warm conditions, it wasn't hard to see why.

Dropped into Fitness First on the way home for an easy run on the tready - shins were ok and comeback # 9 is in full swing.

Km's this week - 6
Km's this month - 10
Km's this year - 52

Visit to physio, Shane Lemcke

At the suggestion of Bruno, I visited physio Shane Lemcke at the Gabba Sports Medicine Clinic this AM. Bruno can see that I'm doing everything right and am diligent at doing the one percenters and he is convinced there is something else wrong with my shins that hasn't been picked up yet and he had a few ideas that he passed onto Shane prior to my visit.

Ran into fellow Pat Carroller, Karen M at the start of my appt and it was nice to say G'day to her. After explaining my long history of shin probs to Shane he got me to do some walk and jog throughs before he had a good feel of my shins and feet. Peter Stanton even left the Lions player he was working on at the same time to come over and have a look :) Shane thinks that my problems could relate to the lack of stability in my feet at toe off. Whilst I wear a small piece of felt under the inner soles of all my running shoes to correct mild pronation at impact, this doesn't stabilise the toe off. Shane thinks that this lack of stability is overloading the muscle that runs inside the tibia and the resultant stress to the shins is the cause of my problems(if I understand the diagnosis correctly) Shane will call my pod Ashley Mahoney and work with him to design an orthotic for me. All going well, I will have the orthotics shortly and hopefully that will be key that unlocks the enigma aka Matty's shins!

Fingers crossed!

Tuesday - Comeback # 9

4 x 5mins, 2 min walking recovery

After 17 days off, I was back on the tready this morning taking it easy with four 5min efforts. There was a little bit of discomfort but not as bad as I thought could happen and hence Comeback #9 is underway!! Hit the weights afterward for an hour of core strengthening. Gees, its good to be back!!

Km's this week - 4
Km's this month - 46
Km's this year - 46

More Money Monday

As we typically take stock of where our lives are going around the New Year period, so did yours truly. This year, my thoughts focused primarily on my running goals and how I was going to achieve them. I made some sacrifices, such as letting go of my golf game even further. Prior to my running comeback, I had a burning desire to be a single figure handicapper and practiced incessantly. After the running bug bit me, I scaled back the golf to once or twice monthly social club games with occasional practice. After nine months of not touching a club, there was the temptation to get back into it, but I reminded myself of how I played far too many different sports in my twenties to be truly top level at any one of them. Running is #1 and I'm not letting anything get in the way this time around - so I'm at peace with letting my golf game go rusty!

On the contrary, I realised that my committment to personal finance and wealth creation had slipped over the past year as my committment to running increased. Previously, I was quite regular and perusing and analysing my personal finance and my investment portfolio - that hasn't been the case in the past year. In fact, my personal finance has become quite sloppy and I'm frequently forgetting to pay my mobile phone bill or electricity bill on time. This is not a good thing because even though I've never missed a home loan repayment, those failures to pay small bills could come back to haunt me. Australia is only one of three countries in the world to have a negative credit reporting system - when trying to obtain credit, lenders won't be able to see that John Citizen paid a home loan in full over 15 years without missing a payment - they'll only see that he was a week late paying his mobile bill on eight occasions last year!! Ridiculous, isn't it!!!

So, I've decided to committ myself to "More Money Monday". This involves spending no less than one hour each Monday attending to my personal finances and wealth creation. You know, well creation is a lot like running isn't it? You continually add money to your portfolio(training), spend time reviewing it and making sure it is healthy(eat vitamins) and then enjoy the satisfaction of an investment hitting paydirt(a race PB!) So, at least one hour on More Money Monday will know look like this for Matty:

- attend to personal finances - bills/bank a/c's etc
- review progress of share portfolio/read annual reports
- study other ASX companies with a view to future accumulation of their shares or play around with puts and options
- peruse opportunities in property - residential/commercial or industrial
- examine business opportunities
- meet with business partners or potential business partners
- if nothing else to do, then read BRW or Fin Review.

I was going to suggest that we start up a Runner's Investment Club, but do you really think a group of runners in one room could focus on the topic at hand?

Fifteen days without a run

After fifteen days without a run, I'm close to my longest break since I made my comeback in January of 2004. The good news is that I'm almost completely rid of this low grade virus and I felt strong in the gym yesterday when doing core strengthening and stability. I am now targetting Tuesday for my comeback as the shins have felt much better in the last 24 hours as the virus dissipated.

Issue #4 of Run For Your Life has just come out and I was pleased to see that my writing turned out well. Of the 4500 words I contributed, only one paragraph was edited and the editor left out a word when submitting a replacement sentence in that paragraph - the first para of my PCRG article - ouch!! Still, all went well and Pat got a good cover shot. Not so great was me running on the edge of the front cover doing my worst impersonation of a goldfish but that's running - not all photos will be pretty!! Most of the Group managed to get their mugs into the action photos contained within and that was pretty satisfying - thanks to all those who contacted me about the PCRG article with their congrats and thank yous.

Had a good time last night with about 12 Pat Carrollers at the Ship Inn last night for drinks and dinner. This was the first of eight social events I'll be organising for the Group this year - hopefully with plenty of assistance from my team mates later on(hint hint hint). Hopefully, with more notice and word of mouth, we will grow these gatherings into "can't miss" events by the end of the year! Also of interest, everyone present learned last night that we do not get Jodie and Clairie started on the topic of 'killer sperm'!!!

Feeling better...

I've taken a couple of days leave which has helped me to get over this persistent and clingy low grade virus. I'm now feeling a lot better after taking care of myself in the last few days. Thanks to Clairie for her cutting remarks about my committment to running that helped me pull the plug on four to five days of self destruction last week when I drank and played up too much. Hit the gym for an easy twenty minutes late this arvo and felt better for it.

Went out to UQ tonight with Langy for the Qld 5000m and 3000m champs with Peter Nowill and Claire Geraghty the victors. Its always inspiring watching a powerful, yet graceful runner like Nowill tear around the track. Comparing his gait to mine which has plenty of improvement left in it, gives me a lot of optimism for the future.

As an aside, just why do girls like shopping?? Today, I thought it was high time I used a Coles Myer gift voucher that I got for my birthday six months ago to buy a much needed pair of brown dress shoes. My last pair of brown shoes wore out about two years ago resulting in several snappy looking tan and bone slacks gathering mothballs in my cupboard with no brown shoes to be matched with. As I always do, when a dreaded shopping trip is required, I figured I would kill several birds with one stone and get some anti virus software and swimming pool salt as well - sound like a good plan? WRONG!!!

I ventured out to Westfield Chermside with a plan to get everything done in less than one hour, not a second more. Found some nice Hush Puppies at Myer but they didn't have brown shoes in my size, so I put in an order for some and will have to return to collect them at a later date - probably in six months, if I'm true to form. Westfield Chermside did not have any specialist computer stores selling Anti-Virus software, let alone the AVG brand that I wanted to purchase after an unhappy experience with Norton 2005. So, I'll have to order the stuff online - no way I'm hunting other computer stores for it!! And to cap it all off, K-Mart had run out of swimming pool salt....... grrrrr grrrrrr..... And girls actually enjoy this??

Season in purgatory continues

I still have not shaken this low grade virus that whilst not restricting my work and social interaction, continues to leave my body unable to support my shins to the extent that I would like, hence I will not risk running again before Thursday. That would take my total to twelve days off running - purgatory indeed!!

So I took solace in a big night with the boys at the Bullets on Saturday night before backing up for another big one at the Gabba for the one dayer. In hindsight, using alcohol a weapon against the virus probably was not the most disciplined way combat it, but what the hell!!! I'm months away from my next serious race attempt so losing a day or two isn't the end of the world.

Still no running!!

My rough start to the year continues. Whilst my shin soreness has just about gone away, I still haven't been able to shake this low grade virus that has plagued me for a week now and won't resuming running until I'm healthy again.

On the positive side the core strengthening program is going well with two solid sessions under my belt and morale when hitting the gym is high. I find that walking into the gym, starting my stopwatch and saying 'I've got 30 or 60 minutes to make the most of this time, then I'm leaving' works well for me.

As well as the core strengthening, i'm toying with the idea of consulting a naturopath. Among other things, it is claimed that taking vegetal silica is good for the shins, so what have I got to lose.....apart from more cash. Does anyone know a good naturopath?? (not dietician)

If you thought that the mental picture of Matty walking into a naturopath's clinic was a sign that things thing are getting desperate, then how about this:

I read in Tim Noakes Lore of Running that "there is some evidence that taking oral contraceptives reduces the occurrence of tibial stress fractures." Excitedly, i texted these findings to fellow shin spints sufferer, Jodie. Her classic response: "remember to start in the shaded section, buddy :)"

Yes, these are most certainly desperate times.....

Sunday - Another breakdown!

Unfortunately, my 100th blog entry will not be a memorable one, for here I am reporting on yet another breakdown, albeit a minor one. I have now broken down more times than my mate RooBoy's old Holden Commodore(aka 'the lemon').

After cutting Friday's run from 50 to 40 minutes, I experienced intermittent discomfort in the shins, (primarily the upper left shin on the outside, more muscular than on the bone) on Saturday and on Sunday morning. So I canned the Sunday Long Run.

I'm almost certain that the low grade virus I had late in the week is responsible and I was probably affected by it earlier in the week before I felt it. So, the lesson here is until I have completed resolved my shin splints problem, I will have to stop run the instant I feel a virus/flu coming on. Lets hope I don't get too paranoid about this!!

As always, when I break down, I take the time to review everything I've been doing and to consider new ideas and strategies to add to my running and training regime. This time, I've decided to double the time and effort I put into core strengthening and stability exercises. My upper body is stronger than that of the average runner, but my back, torso and hips are only of average strength. I'm hoping that if my body is rock hard strong instead of merely strong, then it will be able to take the load of the shins a little. Phil K in particular swears that his strict gym regime and all round body strength is the reason behind his low injury rate.

Starting this week, my goal is to devote a minimum of two hours a week to core strengthening and stability exercises.

On a positive note, had a great start to the day when Tesso, Chelle, Robbie, Ciaran and Tara, Liz and Glenno and others went for a run along the Kedron Brook with MJ for her last run prior to leaving for basic Army Reserves training at Kapooka, near Wagga Wagga. I cycled amongst the group and then it was back to MJ's place for a huge breakfast on the deck.

Friday - Story Bridge Adventure Climb

40 mins 8k's @ 5:00mins/km - DID NOT FINISH

Up bright and early on Friday morning to take MJ on the Story Bridge Adventure Climb for her birthday. 'Say what?' I hear some of you ask. 'Take a girl bridge climbing for her birthday!!??' . You better believe that's exactly what I did. Jewellry, clothes, perfume - BORING!!!! I and my brothers all prefer to offer a memorable experience for a present. Adam recently got his girlfriend a parasailing experience on the Gold Coast for Xmas - a great idea which I've filed away in my memory bank!!

Anyway, the day dawned gloomily with overcast conditions and light rain greeting us upon awakening. Fortunately, the sun and the accompanying humidity intruded upon the Melbourne like weather before our climb at 6:30am. Having climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2000 during the Sydney Olympics I was quite familiar with the pre climb routine of putting on coveralls and other equipment. I safely passed the breath test which brought backnostalgic memories of the Harbour Bridge Climb. When my brother Adam and I along with my mate Lacho were down in Sydney for the Olympics, my other brother Benno joined us for a 36 hour hit and run trip during which he planned to see as many events as possible and join Adam and I in a brothers climb of the Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately, after a hard day in the office, followed by a few relaxing ales on the plane to Sydney, Benno made the mistake of continuing to party on very hard with the rest of us at the Bondi Hotel till 2am. That took its toll and when fronting up for our climb at 11am the next morning, Benno managed to blow .1 and was barred from joining Adam and I on the climb and forfeited the $120 fee!! Needless to say, Benno wasn't too happy at the time, but its a story that we all laugh at now and one that has grown legs over the years. Lacho in particular enjoys embellishing this story.

But back to the present - the climb commenced with a walk along a temporary undercarriage bolted under the bridge. For nervous climbers, this can be hairy with semi trailers passing overhead shaking the structure. Its also hairy if you look down through the metal grill of the walkway. Reaching the famous steel span of the bridge, a steep stairway on the east side took MJ, I and the rest of our group halfway up where we paused for several minutes to take in the view before continuing to the top. The spectacle at the top was predicably breath taking affording great views of the Brisbane River, the city skyline, Kangaroo Pt, the mountains out west and the feature characteristics found to the east and north. Moving on to the middle of the bridge, we crossed over to the city side and made our way back to the top again before finally descending. MJ and I had a great two hours enjoying this birds eye view of our home city and we encourage everyone to undertake the experience also - preferably as a couple, because if you do, MJ or I get a free climb with you as part of a special deal being offered!!

My Friday Recovery Run was not so enjoyable. 30 minutes into the run, there was a little discomfort in the left shin and at 40 mins I pulled the plug on the run before reaching 50 minutes. I have a very low grade virus which has given me a minor sore throat and I suspect that this has weakened my body just enough to bring on a minor recurrence of the shin splints. Other than the shins, I am not adversely affected by this low grade virus and should be ok soon, I hope.

Lethargy prevails

5 x 1k @ 4:30mins/km, 3k WU & WD

I was a little lethargic today courtesy of a very minor sore throat. I must point out that I mean a sore throat of a viral kind, not the sore throat that follows an evening of yelling at basketball referees! Anyway, I got through the speedwork this AM ok, with a little discomfort on the outside of the left shin which was not unexpected. Experience and I now have plenty of it has taught me that I am more likely to experience shin discomfort when running through a flu or similar virus.

Don't you love it when....

Don't you love it when the mighty Brisbane Bullets beat the much hated Sydney Kings!!!! You bewdy!!! Drove out to the game tonight, pausing to hand some sports drink out the window to MJ who was running down Rode Rd as I drove past. With brother Benno and his girlfriend Elly soon to head back overseas I took the opportunity to invite them. And what a game they saw with the league leading Kings taking on the inconsistent but desperate Bullets outfit. In a high quality shootout, the Bullets got home 121-108 urged on by a passionate and vocal crowd that included an excitable Robbie L throwing fist pumps from his seat not far from me. I was a little more restrained but my mouth got me in trouble in the high stakes 4th quarter when I dropped the magic word when having one of my regular go's at the ref - "What the f... was that!!" Some security meathead saw fit to ask me out the back "for a little chat." Not to worry, the Bullets General Manager who stands right next to my seats when watching games was quick to intervene saying "leave him alone - he's alright". As the saying goes.. "You gotta have friends!" That ended yet another eventful day in the life of Matty!!

And if you're reading this Mum, sorry about the swearing - I'll try harder next time :)

Don't you hate it when.....

Don't you hate it when you drop an innocent one liner and it comes back to haunt you? Yesterday, Vix at work was discussing blackouts with me when i said "Aaaah, I never get blackouts where I live....." And you guessed it! Last night a violent thunderstorm kept me awake at midnight as I got up to check the house and then when the air con stopped at 4am, I knew I'd been hit by a blackout!!! A bit of an uncomfortable night to say the least.

Tuesday - Increasing Speedwork Mileage

3 x 2k @ 9:00 mins rep, 2k WU, 3k WD

A solid session on the tready! To compensate for my current slow speed at 'speedwork', I'll be increasing mileage at each speedwork session in January from 10k's to 11k's, possibly working my way up to 14k's in April. We'll see how we go.

New Years Day long run

60 mins, 12k's @ 5:00 min/km

Matty was a good boy last night and refrained from seeing in the New Year with a wild, boozey night! Instead, it was a coupla quiet beers and a DVD with MJ. As much as I love partying, there will certainly be less of it for the next ten years whilst I make the most of my window of opportunity to get the most out of my running potential. Once that's done, I can spend the rest of my life partying!!

Anyway, today's run was another nice hitout, the longest on the treadmill and the longest in two months. All going well, I'll be up to two hour Sunday long runs by the end of February. Bring it on.

I'm still reflecting on my how I feel about the year 2005 and on my goals for 2006 and will reveal more in the next few days.

Happy New Year to all!!!!

Matty

36 Hour Tin Can Bay getaway

Thursday - 5 x 1k @ 4:30mins/km - 2k WU, 3k WD
Friday - 45 mins @ 5:00mins/km

MJ and I managed to get away to Tin Can Bay for 36 hours of living at a slower pace. Naturally, the getaway had to be sandwiched between a Thursday AM run and a Friday evening run - both of which were solid hitouts. The drive to Tin Can Bay was interupted by a diversion to Rainbow Beach where we enjoyed a brief hike in the Great Sandy National Park rainforest followed by a swim at Poona Lake. We then had a drink at the Rainbow Beach SLSC so I could watch the rest of the cricket ;-) before finally heading to Tin Can Bay.

Our host, Kellie and two other of MJ's mates were unsuccessfully attempting to fish when we arrived. For mine, I think fishing is one of the most boring activities alive so I was content to sip a beer and take in the sunset and the cooling late afternoon breezes over the bay. An enjoyable night of games, takeaway food and a few drinks followed.

The next day we managed to squeeze in a tourist drive, surf skiing, swimming and cycling before heading back to civilisation late in the arvo. 36 hours is about as long as I can take it easy these days. I won't be achieving too many goals in 2006 by taking long holidays!!

Xmas season concluded unscathed

5 x 1k @ 4:30 mins/km, 2k WU, 3k WD

I managed to get through Boxing Day at Big Rob's unscathed. Quite fortunate considering the massive quantity of XXXX's tinnies and BBQ fare that was available for the guests to feast upon. Waking up without the usual post Boxing Day hangover of previous years, I then put in a solid session on the tready.

Shins pulled up a little sore as the day wore on, but no major dramas. I'm attributing it to the 50 mins at UQ on Sunday. FF was closed so I had no choice but to do my run somewhere.

Sunday - Christmas Run at UQ

50 mins, 10k's at about 5:00 mins/km

MJ and I were up bright and early and headed out to UQ for the annual Xmas run on the Athletics track. Most of the attendees had a modest speedwork session in the warm and humid conditions but Sunday is not my speedwork day, so I just cruised along for my Sunday long run and visualised racing at the track in the UQ Alumni 1500m heats that are held at the Bank of Qld Classic meet each November. Its a race that I have penned down in my 2006 program.

The rest of the day was a good old fashioned family Xmas with plenty of time in the pool indulging in XXXX's and prawns. MJ possibly came up with the present of the day giving me Tim Noakes The Lore of Running - 900+ pages of everything the serious runner needs to know! It'll be fun ploughing through it!!

Friday - Recovery run

30 mins, 6k's @ 5:00mins/km

Drama free recovery run on the tready.

Thursday - Pat Carroll Running Group Xmas Session

Surge and Hills

With the sore left foot a distant memory, I ran steadily thoughout today's session - this fortnight's allocated non treadmill session. Christmas cheer was the order of the day with everyone wearing Xmas gear and yours truly adorned in Xmas Boxers and Santa's cap. It was also open day for kids of group members to come along and they spent the session squirting us with water pistols.

I cruised along at around 4:20's for the session and experienced no discomfort.

Tuesday - Back on track!!

40 mins, 8k's @ 5:00min k's

Did an easy 40 mins on tready on the way home from work without missing a beat. The inflammation and swelling are already a distant memory. I think the experiences of the past few days have me well equipped knowledge wise to handle similar incidents in future.

Busy start to the morning chaperoning photographer Glen Eaton around to catch shots of the PCRG in action. Glen is pretty happy with the shots he got and coupled with the shots Pat has taken over the year, we should have some nice ones for R4YL mag. I've only gotta caption them and my work for this issue will be over.

When I started writing for R4YL I told publisher Daniel Green that I would not be after remuneration in the early days as we lifted the mag off the ground. But Greeny suggested that I invoice him $200 for my efforts on the upcoming issue which I will!! Could this be the first remuneration of a long journalistic career - who knows? One thing I do know is that I need further remuneration in order to silence my brother Adam. He bragged tonight that he raked in $250 for reading his Wallabies poem at a corporate function prior to the 2003 Rugby World Cup. His 'career artistic earnings' lead mine by $50 and of course, I have to overtake that figure!!

Miraculous recovery!!!

RICE!!!! Isn't it a wonderful thing? Late Saturday arvo and evening, I altered my self treatment to include more compression and elevation as compared to the previous treatment where ice dominated the proceedings. I wore a very tight foot/ankle compression garment that my brother Adam wore in his recovery from a badly swollen ankle every time I finished icing and then elevated. I then slept the first half of the night with my left leg elevated on cushions. Upon wakening on Sunday, swelling was significantly reduced and I could almost walk normally. Continued RICE throughout the day kept improving my condition and by late arvo I was in reasonable shape to do a 10k run!! Common sense however dictates that I will make my return to running on Tuesday.

I think what I've learnt out of this experience is that its very easy to get carried away with the icing and necglect the R, C and E in RICE, which is what I did. With the injury I had, the compression and elevation were clearly the key recovery factors.

On the writing side, I've finally wrapped up my 4500 word, four article contribution to the next issue of Run For Your Life. Am looking forward to a little break from writing!!

Can't walk, let alone run!

The past 36 hours has been quite disturbing for me. After blogging the early details of my sore foot yesterday morning , the problem continued to worsen. I then remembered that I took a nasty stumble to my left on the tready on Thursday AM whilst talking to someone next to me, but with absolutely no discomfort evident, I contined my session - later, I rode over to Mum's place down the road, cycling barefoot. I think one or both of those events combined with sleeping with my feet hanging over the edge of the bed has created the problem. As Ally said in the comment section yesterday - its 'ice ice, baby!' and rest assured that I was applying plenty of crushed ice in a towel. In fact I even took a hot/cold gel pack when MJ and I went to dinner at her mate's place. I asked the hosts if I could borrow their freezer to keep chilling the gel pack to place on my foot. I think we can file that one away under "Crazy things runners do # 798"

Unfortunately, the foot was even worse this morning and showing signs of swelling for the first time. I then recalled my connective tissue inflammation in the same four weeks prior to the Gold Coast Marathon last year - this was now starting to feel similar and like the inflammation, the swelling arrived some time after the initial trauma. In that instance, lots of ice over a 3-5 day period before resuming running ASAP even with a little discomfort(to increase blood flow to the area) helped me get to the starting line 100%.

Today after six hours in the office and lots of ice, the swelling seemed to be getting even worse and I was positive I could feel my left calf and lower limb swelling up also. With visions of Clairie's Baker' s Cyst drama going through my mind, I swore I could feel extra blood and fluid swelling my leg up even further! I immediately lay down on the floor next to my desk and elevated my leg onto my chair and proceeded to do that every couple of hours for the rest of the day.

I'm currently dragging my left leg behind me when I walk as if I'm carrying a ball and chain. Running will be out of question for a few days. What started out as a minor discomfort has ballooned into a fully blown issue requiring constant RICE. If only the swelling had commenced immediately that I had suffered the trauma then I may have been able to knock it on the head quicker!

Freak injury!!!

Last night, I hit the sack shortly after midnight, exhausted after a few hours of solid writing and editing to wrap up a very busy day. After putting on my Skins, I fell onto the bed and dropped off to sleep pretty quickly. After a few hours I woke up with discomfort in my left foot where it was hanging slightly over the end of the bed. I hauled myself closer to the head of the bed so I could rest my foot on the mattress and promptly went back to sleep. After getting out of bed this morning I was in immediate discomfort when standing up and pushing off from the foot when trying to walk. I can't even put a name to the part of the foot that is bothering me but the dicomfort is located one to two inches back from the big toe and on the inside of the foot. Its definitely not anything to do with the ligaments that run along the metatarsals to the toes, nor is it plantar fascitis.

A run today is definitely out of question as right now I sitting here typing whilst dipping my foot into the dreaded ice buckets for one minute intervals...Owwww!!!!! I'm not too worried about a long term prob as I imagine this is just a silly thing that will clear up quickly.
Fingers crossed!

Thursday - The busy life of a writer

5 x 1k @ 4:30 mins/km

On Wednesday night, I was in the zone and wrote 1500 words in two hours by hand for my Pat Carroll Running Group 'Club of the Month' feature in R4YL. In some ways, writing is a lot like running - If you get into the zone, you can just write at full pelt with words easily blending into sentences and sentences seamlessly blending into paragraphs. Today was also dominated by writing and proofreading my work for R4YL as the deadline looms tomorrow.

I enjoyed a good hitout on the tready after lunch and am looking forward to starting to pick up my mileage again following the recovery week last week.

Tuesday - The Christmas present dilemna

3 x 2k @ 4:30 mins/km, 2k WU and WD.

Had a nice hitout on the treadmill this morning, running smoothly and evenly. Unfortunately, not everything else went smoothly. Benno's Mazda 323 which I'm driving whilst he is overseas wouldn't start and I ended up driving Adam's Holden Astra to gym and work. As the Astra was sans aircondtioning, I walked into the office soaked in sweat. Surely this is not how Clairie does her secret heat training sessions?

The afternoon saw me dash out to the Uni of Qld to see my sprint coach and occasional podiatrist Ashley Mahoney. After Ash flimed me front on, rear on and side on doing 5:00, 4:15 and top pace, he was very pleased with the improvements in my gait which is a great stride towards more speed and eliminating shin splints. Ash is expecting the still frames from the film to quantify my progress shortly. We ended the session discussing my 400m speed. Coach Pat has told me he has a 400m PB of 52 secs and on the basis of this, I would like to be able to run a 55 sec 400m which I believe will give me the raw speed that I need to be able to run faster accross the board at all distance. Ash reckons I can run 57-58 pretty easily but hard work will be required to get down to 55.

But the real big news came yesterday when MJ texted me to say that she had won the Fitness First promo where a new member(me!!) is referred by a current member (her!!). The prize - A super duper fancy BBQ with all the works!!! I had to laugh when MJ told me about the big win because she was pretty insistent that I not sign up for membership unless I negotiated the price down to exactly what she is paying. I ended up negotiating the price down as you might recall, but was unable to get it all the way down to what she pays, courtesy of signing up five years ago, but signed up anyway. Gees, MJ's a lucky gal, don't you think!!!! The big question now is - am i excused from having to get MJ an Xmas present??? After all, how can I top that BBQ??? ;-)

Sunday - Reporting duties at Kurrawa 50k

Sunday Long Run, 45 mins, 9k's @ 5:00mins/km

I had a verrrrry busy weekend. After putting in a shift at work on Saturday, I headed to Strike Bowling Centre at the Wintergarden for my staff Xmas Party. I had an enjoyable time in my three hours there winning the bowling with a score of 156, from 23 other contestants. Perhaps more importantly, I managed to restrict the damage from the tasty(and free!!) amber fluid to just nine XXXX Golds - I think!!! Then it was off to the Bookmaker's Club to put in an appearance at my mate Johnno's surprise 30th Birthday Party, where again, I restricted the damage to just a few Goldies. Rest assured when I say that a few years ago, a night like this saw me still going strong at 5am, having long lost track of the quantity of alcohol consumed!

Three and a half hours sleep(wearing my new Skins for the first time!) later, Langy rocked up to SportsCentre at 3am and after picking up Slash, we headed down the highway for the Kurrawa to Duranbah 50k and 2 x 25k relay, which Langy and Slash were competing in as a team. A record field of around 150 lined up and I had a lot of fun helping Slash crew for Langy as we drove down the Gold Coast towards Duranbah, stopping every few k's to supply Langy with water and gels whilst also barracking for the likes of fellow Pat Carrollers, MJ, Clarie, Tesso, Jess, Daniel and Tara. The format of the race and the crewing for Langy provided me with a perfect opportunity to follow the race for my Run For Your Life reporting duties. Langy did us proud, covering more ground than any other contestant in the first leg and becoming the first person in the history of the race to get lost inside the first 5k's!!! Onya Mate!! To his credit, Langy finished strongly and Slash then ran a strong second leg in warming conditions as the boys finished sixth. Whilst I was sceptical about the value of participating in an event like this, I enjoyed myself immensely and will probably do the race as a Sunday Long Run next year. Whilst there are know spectators, the support of enthusiastic crew driving down the Coast alongside the runners more than makes up for their absence.

A long drive home, followed by a ninety minute nap in my Skins followed by an easy run on the tready before another shift at work left me ready for a good night's sleep!!

Recovery Week continues

35mins, 7k's @ 5:00 mins/km

Another easy run today with the DOMS now a distant memory. Then got a massage from Bruno during which we discussed my possible race targets for next year. Isn't it exciting when you map out your races for the coming year on a Calender? I'll be sure to reveal my race calender shortly.

Right now, I'm more concerned with trying to work out how to get through the weekend. I have two shifts to work and sandwiched in between that will be a work Xmas Party at 4pm tomorrow arvo, followed immediately by a birthday party and then I'll have to try and snatch 3-5 hours of sleep before a 3am wake up call on Sunday morning to go down the Gold Coast to report on the Kurrawa 50k. Ouch!!

Langy has offered to give me a lift and I could see myself sleeping in the back of his truck on the way down.....In the old days, I probably would have asked Langy to pick me up from outside a nightclub at 3am and then gone straight down the Coast :)

"Its all good."

5 x 1k's @ 4:30 mins/km

A late night last night as I went to the Bullets to watch us extend our winning streak to three games with an exciting 110-107 victory over Cairns. Then it was back to SportsCentre for a few more beers and a coupla games of pool with RooBoy. Since getting a pool table for my 30th, I've been making the effort to play several games each week, even when I don't feel like it. After years of being an average player, come 2007, I wanna be an unbeatable pool whiz!!! Laid some early groundwork with a 3-1 defeat of RooBoy last night!

My post Bribie recovery week continued with an easy session today. Fortunately, I have shaken the last remnants of DOMS and am feeling pretty good.

Post race recovery run

40 mins, 8k's @ 5:00 min/km

Gingerly worked my DOMS affected muscles through an easy 40 minute recovery run this AM. The DOMS is worse than normal, given my race effort came off a fairly low mileage base and little speedwork. Importantly, the shins have pulled up good again.

I've taken a coupla days leave so its a good chance to put the feet up and relax here and there. Will also find time to write a few thousand words for R4YL.

Life's good and motivation is high at the moment. Bring on 2006!!

Bribie Island Tri Race 2 - 1/30/8, Sunday

8k's in 30:58 - 2nd fastest runner out of 18. Northies 3rd out of 18

After about five hours restless sleep, my mobile's vibrating alarm jolted me out of my slumber at 4:50am and then I proceeded to go through my normal pre race organised chaos of getting ready. Drove out to Bribie with MJ and after I watched her start her Just Tri It 300/13/3 event, I headed further down the passage to get ready for Northies' start. With RooBoy's back problems ruling him out of a Bribie race for the first time, we had recruited the Big Fella to fill in for him. Whilst Big Fella was a handy swimmer in his day, he only had two weeks to prepare for this event and 115kg to carry so the pressure was on!! As expected, the Big Fella acquitted himself admirably and came out of the water after his 1k swim, 12th out of 18 teams and a few minutes off the pace. In warming temperatures, Matt then put in another slick effort on the bike with the 4th fastest time and when he tagged me I thought we were in 2nd or 3rd and definitely around three minutes off the lead as the temperature headed into the thirties. I knew the lead runner was capable of a 30 min effort or thereabouts for the 8k, so it was going to take sub 28 run or so to get him which is clearly beyond me at the moment given my shin probs and low training mileage. Instead, I concentrated on running steadily and protecting our position. Going past the boys after completing the first four k lap, RooBoy confirmed that we were in third place and about three minutes behind second place. I continued to run in a steady fashion and with a controlled stride and was shocked when at the 4.5k mark, another team runner loomed up alongside me, venturing onto the grass to overtake me and looking fresh and strong. I instinctively matched his pace for fifty metres or so to make him work hard at running on the softer surface of the grass before he pulled ahead of me and opened up a two metre gap. This was the first time in five races at Bribie that I had been overtaken by another team runner. While all this sank in, the weak side of my brain quickly came to the fore saying "You're not going 100% today because of your shins and its not your fault that the team lost time on the swim leg, so nobody will blame you if we miss a placing, because even at this steady pace, you will still be a top three runner and will have done your job." These thoughts circulated through my mind for about thirty seconds as I continued to stay in touch with the bloke now in third place. Then the strong side of my brain came to the fore suggesting "Look - just draft this bloke for the rest of the race and then outkick him in the last 400m with a sprint finish. Only very good runners can outsprint you and this bloke is probably not one of them." I pondered the tactical implications of this option for a few moments before the sadistic side of my brain cut in, hissing "Put on a surge right now and BREAK this bastard!!! Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!"
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!
Matty can endure more pain than anyone else!

I promptly stepped up the pace from a little faster than 4:00's to around 3:40 min/km pace, quickly overtook the bloke to recapture third place and proceeded to put ten metres on him before resuming my steady speed, just under 4:00's. It was no contest and a knockout win to Matty as the challenger surrended and quickly continued to fall further and further off the pace to the extent that he dropped out of sight in the last two k's. I hit the line in third place for Northies with an 8k PB of 30:58. It shows how far I have come in the last 18 months when I look back to my comeback race in the Lest We Forget 8k in April of 2004 where I gutted myself in running 32:15 in perfect racing conditions. To do 30:58 today in fourth gear was immensely satisfying!

I finished off the morning with a 2.5k warm down run and felt strong throughout and could have done another 10k's easy. Importantly, there was no shin discomfort throughout the race and I pulled up well as the day and evening went by. When the results came out I didn't know whether to laugh or swear!! We officially came thiird beating the fourth place team by seven and a half minutes prompting the penny to drop. It meant that the bloke I had a dogfight for "third place" with at the 4.5k mark was actually a fresh runner in his first lap and just 500m into his run!!! What can you say - "that's racing!" MJ's results were also favourable in her debut tri with the second fastest run for her category so it was a great day all round!

Spirit is willing but body is tired

30 mins, 6k's at 5:00 mins/km

Whilst the spirit was tempted to push it and run 45 mins today, the body was tired from Tuesday's and Thursday's sessions plus a ninety minute bike ride with MJ into the Boondall wetlands yesterday to help her prepare for her first individual tri on Sunday at Bribie. Even nine and half hours sleep last night couldn't freshen me up. The last 24 hours is an example of the period of time when I could possibly benefit from Skins. Had I worn Skins to bed and again for the recovery run, perhaps the legs would have been fresher for the run this morning. I'm looking forward to finding out for myself when I get the Skins next week.

Other than the tiredness, the legs got through the session well, with little discomfort and I got through another session without the ankle tape. I've been working hard on my foot strengthening exercises of late and feel ready to try a Sunday long run next week without the ankle tape.

Its all good!!

Late session, Great session

5 x 1k's @ 4:15 mins/km, 2k warm up, 3k warm down

A late night last night led to a late trip to Fitness First this morning. Went to the Bullets and watched our boys put in their best performance of the year torching the Sixers 130-109. Now if only we can get a streak going! Should have been in bed earlier but made the mistake of popping a DVD of the first episode of Without a Trace into the DVD player. I was impressed by the good scripting, tight storyline and strong characters and ended up watching two episodes.

Got through another discomfort free run at the gym this morning and I'm just stoked with how things are going on the tready so far. I'm really looking forward to seven to eight weeks of solid volume training after Bribie this weekend and easing my way up to 70k's a week. I also can't wait for the results of my next gait analysis to see how much my stride has improved!

Maybe not sensible, but satisfying

3 x 2k's at 8:00 mins each with 90 sec WR's

After feeling under the weather for thirty-six hours, and spending extra time sleeping, I ventured out into the stormy weather late this arvo to hit the tready at Fitness First. After a ten minute warm up, it was straight into the session. With the tready set to 15kms/hr, this was the fastest I have gone on it and even though I was doing what I thought was a relatively easy pace, it felt like I was running at 7:20-7:30 pace for those 2k efforts. Either I've lost more fitness than I thought over the last month or I'm underestimating the softness of the treadmill mat which makes you work harder than running on a bitumen surface. Had a coupla moments when the weak side of the brain wanted to ease off, but with Bribie Tri Race Two run leg of 8k coming up on Sunday, it wasn't hard to shoosh those thoughts away. Again, no discomfort in the shins during the session. I'm undecided on my Bribie race plan, but at this stage, I'm likely to run at 90% effort - a little bit faster than four minute k's giving me a time of 31 something, which should still be good enough for a top three run leg time and hopefully, a Northies victory.

Got stuck into writing my Bank of Qld Classic race report for R4YL before going to the gym. Writing is a lot like running, some people want to put if off, but once you get going, the words really flow!!!

Cranky, but controlled..

55 mins, 11k's at 5:00 mins/km

After getting up early this AM to watch the Kangaroo's put the finishing touches on the worst year in Australian sport, I went back to bed before heading to Fitness First, tempted to give myself a good flogging to purge the anger from my system.

Instead my desire to recover carefully from the shin splints won out and I met up with MJ, jumped onto the tready and spent a controlled 55 mins rolling along with not one iota of discomfort intruding on my run.

Friday Recovery Run

40 mins - 8k's at 5:00 mins/km

Had a nice recovery run on the tready followed by a rub from Bruno who was again pleased with the condition of my legs. Bruno has advised me to do some occasional hamstring curls at the gym to offset the reduced workload they will have on the tready so have taken that on board. Morale is high at the moment and I've keenly applying myself to a long list of "one-percenters" - those little things that'll ultimately assist me in getting back on track.

Enjoyed a fun evening of drinks at dinner at the Ship Inn with the Par Carrollers. We have had informal and hastily planned drinks on Friday nights in the past but I've decided its time the Group took the next step and started up a Social Committee so we can set up a calender of social events for 2006. If this evening is any indication, with twenty people turning up at relatively short notice, it should be a barnstorming success. As usual, when runners get together there were bold predictions aplenty and big talk about 2006!!

Picking up the pace

3 x 2k's (9:00 mins per rep) with 90 sec Walking Recovery, 2k warm up and 2k warm down

Picked up the pace on the tready this morning running at 14k's per hour for 2k reps and got through the session with little discomfort. It was great to get the HR up and have a good sweat. Have pulled up satisfactorily so far. I was a little concerned prior to the session as yesterday I had dropped into Fitness First on the way to work for a quick cardio session on the bike and rowing machine. Whilst there, I also experimented with one of those ridiculous skiing machines or whatever they are called and ended up with some muscle discomfort on the outside of my lower limbs between the calves and the tibia. Its highly unlikely, I'll spend much further time on that machine!!

I've just spent 30 mins researching and reading up the use of Skins by athletes(Eloise Wellings in particular had good things to say about how they helped her shin splints) and in conjunction with all the good words I've heard about them, I'm now convinced enough to buy. Am about to head down to Westfield Chermside to try out some full length skins at Rebel Sport prior to ordering them at a discount through a team mate.

Back at speedwork!

15 mins of fartlek – 1min, 1min JR, 30 secs, 30 sec JR, 15 secs, 15 sec JR – repeat 4 times

This morning in beautifully warm conditions, I joined my Pat Carroller team mates for speedwork for the first time in three weeks. I took the session pretty easy by my standards, concentrating on an even tempo and trying not to go too fast! As expected there was some shin discomfort but not as bad as I feared and I got through the session unscathed. The A-Team was a little thin on the ground again with Gary leading the way and being pushed by Slash and Scotty whilst there were some strong sessions from the rest of the Group. Already looking forward to my next session with the Group in a fortnight.

The latest Run For Your Life magazine arrived last night and I was pretty pleased with how my Noosa and River Run race reports came out. I only had one spelling mistake and one punctuation mistake which unfortunately, was not picked up by the sub-editor. With R4YL offering an extra month’s subscription to subscribers who point out spelling/grammar mistakes, the pressure is on the editorial team and contributing writers to eliminate errors!! I’m looking for volunteers with a keen sense of written grammar to proofread my work in future! Mum? Lacho?

After watching an Errol Flynn DVD, Dive Bomber last week and disucssing with a workmate, the facial fuzz that was characteristic of that time I accepted a challenge from him to show up to work today in an Errol Flynn mo and boy, it’s a nasty look!! I don’t think I’ll be posting any photos of this one ;-)

First road run since starting on the tready!!

Just want to briefly report that I ran(literally) across the road from work to the pub to watch a mate's horse run in the 4th at Nowra this afternoon. I would have only covered about fifty metres but the difference in my stride was quite noticeable after spending the last ten runs on the tready. Speedwork with the Pat Carroller's is on the cards tomorrow and it'll be interesting to see how my running goes!

Sunday long run - yeah, right!!

50 mins, 10 k's at 5:00 mins/km

50 minutes is hardly a genuine Sunday long run but it will have to do for now. Indeed, it is my longest run ever on a treadmill as I take the slow and cautious route to building up mileage. The run went smoothly as I bumped up the speed on the tready to 12 km/hr for the first time and rolled along. That's 35k's for the week, the most for four weeks.

Gym membership negotiations

40 mins, 8k's @ 5:05 mins/km

A solid run - a couple of niggles here and there as the legs continue to get accustomed to the tready.

Of more interest today was my negotiations with the Assistant Manager at Fitness First. As mentioned previously their first offer of six months membership at $45 a fortnight(equating to $92-93 a month) plus $100 joining fee was unacceptable to me. Today I met with the Assistant Manager, a pretty decent bloke actually and presented him with a written statement of my proposal for membership on my specific terms. After politely but firmly clarifying my terms verbally the AM lowered his offer to $30 a fortnight(about $65 a month) with a reduced joining fee on $59 on the condition that I take twelve months membership instead of six and give up reciprocal rights. This was not totally unexpected and I was comfortable with accepting that offer as the six months will take me to May next year when I hope to be in heavy training for the GC Marathon and perhaps in need of additional cross training apart from runnning. The lengthier membership will allow me to slowly wean myself off the treadmill with four, then three, then two sessions per week - if I have gotten over the bloody shin splints by then!! Ultimately, I would have like to have pressed the AM harder and tried to get him to waive the administration fee but at the end of the day I need Fitness First and their 9am Sunday morning opening times so I can stop off for a long run on my way to work. And of course, there is the added bonus of MJ and RooBoy both being members there also, so we can workout together every now and then.

False alarm

45 mins, 9km @ 5:15 mins/km

I wasn't happy with how my shins felt last night and again this morning so I made a last minute decision not to go to speedwork with the Pat Carrollers for my only non-tready session of the fortnight. Fortunately, it turned out to be something of a false alarm as I got through my equal longest session on the tready with only a few seconds of discomfort early in the run. After two weeks, its still far too early to say whether the conversion to treadmill running has helped me. I expect that I'll be in a position to say more in a months time, especially as I've slowly increased my speed on the tready each session and am now up to 11.6 km/h. By next week, I'll be running at my usual 12-12.5 km/hr for all easy runs and 14-18km/hr for speedwork. I haven't done any speedwork on the tready yet, but naturally, I'll be introducing it slowly.

Some may recall that I put on my home handyman cap a few weeks ago to fix a leaky toilet. I can report that my work was partially successful as the leak stopped when the cistern outlet piece is in the right place, but too often, it starts up again after a flush because cistern outlet settles into a different position. Don't worry - when I get a new cistern outlet, it'll be fixed for good. Anyway, the home handyman cap was back on again today to fix a worrying problem - When I get torrential rain, water pours through the ceiling of my balcony and sometimes into the frames between the brick wall of the balcony and the study. I went up onto the roof last year and was unable to work out where the leak was coming from. With the storm season just upon us, it was time to address the problem once and for all. "Call a roofer!" I hear you say. "Naaah - I'll be able to fix it." And so it was. I got up onto the roof again today and after removing some mesh netting that keeps leaves out of the gutter, I realised that there was a lot of grout missing from the row of tiles next to one of the main grooves that channels water down the roof into the gutter. 8kg of grout and 90 minutes later, the gaps had been sealed after some nifty work with the trowel. I can't wait till the next storm comes around to see how the job stands up!!

And what about those Socceroos? Despite playing soccer at school, I can't stand watching it as there is far too much diving and play acting for a hard bitten league man like me to take. But, I am a patriot first, so last night I was at Rooboy's place watching my second game of soccer in four years, expecting yet another choke. So it was a pleasant surprise to see our boys victorious. The only problem is that, I'll be forced to watch at least three games of soccer next year when I watch them at the World Cup!!

Persistence

40 mins, 8k's @ 5:15 mins/km

Another session in the bank on the tready. Like Sunday, there was just a little distant jarring in the shins in the first twenty minutes before I finished the session without incident. I've been around long enough to know that in a long term recovery program like this, I'm going to have good days and not so good days. But, I will persist until the not so good days are fewer and further between and then eventually, just a distant and unpleasant memory!

Persistence, persistence, persistence!!!

Sunday on the tready

45mins, 9km @ 5:15 mins/km

Had my longest session on the tready this morning as I continue to build up slowly. It wasn't as good as Thursday and Friday as I felt some very distant jarring in the shins, but pulled up well. Wrapped up the day with a lazy bike ride with MJ, only burning a few calories, but a few is better than nothing!