Training Well Again

Ran my old 10km training run the other day with the forerunner hoping to see it measure 11km or so.Disappointed to see it only measure 10.33km as it is my slowest 10km by far with no reason that I know of why.When I am back running it continuously again I'll be able to see where the slow laps are and deal with it.Upped the running time to 6min this run and felt it aerobically.HR hit 170+ a few times which just shows how far I still have to go.
Pain was virtually nil - certainly nothing like enough to stop me from running like in the old days when the injury was fresh.
Spoke to Dr.JH about injury over the phone and he seemed a bit sceptical about the core strengthening pursuit I am attempting.All I could tell him was that I was improving and definitely getting stronger.
Had a great night out last night with our supplier of powder - at Astral restaurant in Star City.Drinking 1991 Limestone Ridge shiraz/cabernet meant no pain this morning.
Other news of note was that the headbutting session with the newest family member to join the business and his wife went well for my case but bad for future prospects for working with them.Hopefully they will mature and get more secure with themselves.I am really determined to see that saying 'business and family don't mix' disproved.

Waiting For That One Step Back

Things still progressing very well as far as my return to running goes.I'm running 1km intervals with 5min walking between sets.The terrain has to be as soft as possible and the pace has averaged about 5m53s per km, or 2min slower per km than where I would like it.Still, having now run a few km and not feeling any pain is so much better than where I thought I would be during some of the darker days.

Just back from my favourite vice - drinking too much wine.The event was the Sydney Top100 wines exhibition.Took me ages to realise that there were about 200wines on display and hence why at the end of it I was always in pretty rough condition.I spat every wine bar about 5 today and still felt too hammered for my comfort but a wee sleep and some water sees me coherent again after a few hours.While recovering from my vice session I read that there is still no clear cut result on whether alcohol is terribly bad for you.However it will deplete glycogen stores following excessive intake (goodbye carbo load) and will exacerbate any fresh injury if you follow the training session with a pub session (no more drowning the sorrows).

I'm setting myself a return to Striders series next month at The Domain where I will try to finish somewhere within the 55min to 60min range.This is bound to blow the handicap out but I will recover it in a few months.

Faster Steps At Last

Back to physio Susie today and apparently my SIJ and pelvis are as squarely aligned as any textbook - phew!She gently told me that whatever training I had been doing now had to be intensified (bit hard to go back from 10min/km walking pace!).OK, so I have been taking things super cautiously but I am sick and tired of false starts to this running caper!
31deg in Sydney today and I couldn't give a stuff - it was time to step things up a bit and try the run/walk (really walk/walk/run/walk/walk)thing.Man, it was good to see the pace on the Forerunner hit 5min/km again (even went under a few times)!It's obvious and heartening that my style has changed a bit :much more upright,arms feel as though they are moving a helluva lot,breathing is a conscious effort now as most of my concentration is on the lower abs and glutes.In all it felt tight and fast and strong - exactly as I had hoped.
No way am I going to rush it though - keep taking it easy and maybe make next month's Striders 10km where I will finish last in the handicap but I will finish.

Six Foot Day

Yesterday was the 6ft track race and was the main goal I was setting myself for late last year.Instead of running my heart and soul out over 46km , I was slogging it out over a mostly flat 8km in suburban Concord at a pace of about 10min/km.I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me after last years race that I would be doing a leisurely walk instead of trying to go under 5 hrs in 2005.
It was good to see a few of the characters that contribute to the CoolRunning website attempting 6ft for the first time and finishing well and truly slower than they were intimating.It still amazes me at how SO MANY people take it out way too fast when they know that they just cannot sustain it.Almost as though they are hoping for divine intervention.I reckon even the best runner on the other side of the Pearly Gates has to get themselves to the river without raising a sweat.
A patient that came to me for advice about hematuria beat my time from last year by about 90sec.The advice obviously was on the money!
As for my training...I ws lucky enough to get a session with Barb Hungerford, the principal at the practice that I get my physio work done (all the desk staff now know me by name which is scary!),and she said I was at the stage where the SIJ did not seem to be tending to slip out of alignment anymore.Which means that my recovery time depends completely on how much time I can devote to the exercises - alot of hard work in other words.I hope this blog keeps me motivated.
Business is still travelling amazingly well but ongoing probs with the supplier of the weight loss sachets we sell is just hastening our departure from them - idiots!I'd love to see the bank
balance healthier and I will be chasing it if in 2 weeks we haven't made a serious dent on it.The trip to Vancouver looks like being curtailed due to the length of time it will take to get the sachets legally supplied to Canada.That will give us more time to expand the OZ market - not such a bad thing really.
Exercise time now