Look Ma, I made it..

..top o' the world!!!

MTB trails ride and arm [pumping!] exercises!

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!! Got all ready to hit the trails with Scotty - tons of fluid, first aid kit, jumper, sports bar if I get hungry, phone and iPod charged, gaiters and trail shoes on, camera in my pocket and grin on my face - and I was out there barely half an hour when I get that awful swooooshy grindy sensation and hopped off to discover a goathead burr sitting in the rear tyre!! GAHHHHH!

These are big prickles, they're woody and have four big horns and are kinda triangular underneath where the seed is, and the spikes on each are usually 1/4" but can grow up to 1/2" long! I knew it was a slow puncture at least as it wasn't flat flat, so left the goathead right where it was to plug the hole and just reinflated and turned around. I'd so far gone maybe 12kms north (and was having a ball, le sigh), so just headed straight back in case I lost the burr and it completely collapsed, but managed to get by with pumping it up again every kilometre.

Am mad at myself for not fixing that other flat yet - now I've two to do! I also should have taken out the quickfix repair kit.. I figured there'd be no point as usually you have to use a bucket of soapy water to hunt out a hole, but I never thought of a big goathead sticking out there. I would have known exactly where it was and could have patched it!

Oh well, live and learn. At least I didn't have to push poor lame Scotty all the way back, and still managed to have an 80 minute steady workout and grab a ton of shots of the beautiful wintry outback. I was hoping to see some hoppers to snap but being midday everything would have been snoozing.. I did see a goshawk though, wheeling above me.. maybe he realised I had a flat and was waiting for me to expire! Cheeky sod.

Nasty Bastard!!!

Differential run - 29 May

Well I did my differential, it was great! Hip hung in there.. I warmed it up gently and after the first couple of kms it woke up and started it's dull ache but really only like a 1/10, just peeping it's head up to remind me it was there. As my speed increased it didn't mind 5:15 pace but at 5:30 pace it grew to a 2/10 but still didn't get any worse, just sat there. Mind you I only did 2kms at that pace, I wouldn't want to do 15kms or something, but that's a good thing at least.

Am plugged in for an easy day tomorrow, might putter around on the bike for some fun as that doesn't bother the hip/butt either - well, excluding the bum bones over the bumps, that is - and on Sunday will be doing a steady 12kms. 

Elliptical - 28 May

Went to the gym this morning after little sleep due to a bunch of callouts for work, but didn't have as much time as I'd have liked so couldn't do the solid 2 hours I was hoping for. I wanted to knock over a steady long one as I've not done a long run in a month, and thus every session I've done has been under an hour in duration. With the marathon fast approaching that can't be a good thing! 

Anyway couldn't do the long 'un so instead did an hour on the elliptical as 3x 20min segments with around 5mins stretching inbetween each, then 10mins of walking to stretch out the legs. My hip was fine and the elliptical didn't bother it at all thankfully, even though I was working harder due to not having as much time. Had the HRM on and kept my PR around 160 to try and get more out of it since I couldn't do a long one. Need to try and regain as much fitness as possible! 

I have my session for tomorrow, am going to do an 8km differential run of 4km @ 5:30 pace, 2km @ 5:15 and 2km @ 5:00 pace. I can't wait! I've not gotten to do one of these differentials yet as in the first week I got sick the day before I was due to do it, and the second week I pinged this hip and haven't run properly since. I think I'll do an easy 20mins on the elliptical to gently warm up the sore bits and stretch them out first, and afterwards I'm going to take Scotty out onto the trails. I've missed riding so much since being back at work, and have fingers crossed the clouds that have come over won't start raining before I can get out there. Just one trails ride and run, that's all I ask for!!! Haven't even gotten my beautiful new Montrails dirty yet. *shakes head sadly*

10kms, okay - 27 May

10kms this morning - first 2km at 6:00 pace and the rest at 5:30, so 56mins all up - and whilst the hip was sorer than on Monday I think that's due to starting different physio exercises. Although it was a more intense type of pain as well as sorer I'm still hoping it'll just fade off over today and tomorrow..

Physio a-go-go

Well I had my physio - she said it's a lot better than it was before so I've done well with my strengthening, and that I can run on it so long as there's no speedwork just yet, and that for the first week at least I should do no running on consecutive days. I also have more exercises to graduate to and a new tennis ball since the last one ended up in pieces in Harvey's jowls. So this week I can run Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and will have another checkup on Monday. Hurrah!

With work I have Friday to Tuesday off so can get out on the trails and the bike those days. I'm actually pondering how much cycling I can do around the streets here whilst staying close to home for callouts.. I could surely do a big block or something for a decent leg workout that's more interesting than just elliptical, and could maybe fartlek it and do one block easy, one hard, one on a heavy gear or something...

Phew!

Fiiiinally some good news! 

Went running this morning, and when it started aching a little bit I just kept going to see how it would go. I had a nice long warm up on the elliptical first for twenty minutes and did a bunch of stretches, and then just started running somewhat delicately on cruise control at 5:30 pace. 

The ache came along like usual at 2kms and grew gradually until it was about 4/10, but didn't get any worse. I was worried it'd just keep increasing to become as bad as it had the last time I ran and had to stop, but it didn't get much worse at all and just kind of sat there at that level, so I kept going and was able to do 15kms! Towards the end it even started to ease off a bit, but only slightly so I didn't push my luck.. had a nice warm down and did more stretching. I also was stretching at every mile or two along the way, just quick hammies and glute stretches.

Am seeing the physio this arvo but hopefully I'll be able to start running again now provided I go carefully. I don't expect to be able to do speedwork until it's fixed and I'm stronger, but maybe the longer stuff would be alright. Feeling somewhat less stressed now!

GASDKRAERLEWKGV##$%$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tried running a scheduled 8km this morning and this bloody hip started aching again so only did 5km. Argh!

I've been super stressing all weekend over this thing - I'm thinking I should just ignore it and do what I can as otherwise I'm not going to get any training done - Doomben is only two weeks away and the marathon is only four weeks after that! It's three weeks now since my last long run and I'm worried I've got loads of catching up to do now and not enough time to do it given I also still need to get my long runs up longer before the marathon. I feel like I've missed so much training and am feeling way behind now. I was hoping it would gradually strengthen and tolerate more and more as I went, so wasn't expecting it to hurt again so quickly today. At this rate I'm not even sure if I should keep Doomben on the schedule...

Gently does it..

After my mini freak out I had to do something, so tried a gentle run/walk on the tready to see how it felt. Happily it wasn't too bad.. not absolutely fine, I could still feel it in there - just tired or weak or something - but it wasn't sore as such and let me do a total of 9kms running and 90 minutes in total run/walking. 

1km walk warm up

1km run slow at 10kmh / 6min pace

500m walk and stretches @ 6kmh

1.5km run, 500 walk

2km run, 500 walk

2.5km run, 500 walk

2km run, 500 walk & warm down

Tomorrow we'll be around the other house doing reno stuff all day so I'm going to do my physio exercises and lunges over and over every now and then, and on Sunday will try an 8km non-stop run. Am hoping the hip will hang in there and let me gradually get back into training over the coming week. The marathon is 6 weeks away on Sunday and it's been 20 days since my last long run, so I really need to regain some fitness and get as much work done over the next four to five weeks as possible before winding down for the race!

I just entered..

..the Gold Coast Marathon!!!

And now I'm shitting it 'cos it's just 6 weeks away and I haven't run for two weeks and I've a half marathon in two weeks and I've not run for two weeks and I don't even know if my hip's getting better yet despite the strength work as I've only been doing strength work since Tuesday and holy heck what if it's not ready in time for Doomben and how can I get fit again in just two weeks and if it's sore at Doomben how will it recover and let me run the Marathon just four weeks after it and even if it is okay I've so much fitness lost already and omgomgomgomgomgomgommgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgmogmmgomgogmogm gomgmooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Oooh it's FREEZING out there today!!! Hooray for warm stuff. I rode to teh gym and did my wlliptical and some strengthy work again, and am mnowp at home having warmy uppy coffee and a little brekkie vbefore hitting hte trails. Am sitting her in all my geAR as i couldn't be bothered taking it all off just to havea quick feed and pick up my phone, hence typos at my gloves and everythiung's really fat hahahaJ!J

Its' 10ºC and there's that kind of misty rain oput there now that's cold and constant, brrrr. I like it though, reminds me of London and NAealnd when I lived there, codl and horrible in a whoooohhoo i'm alive kinda way! 

CRAIG

GET BETTER SOON!! [ya troublemaker!]

GCM Countdown!

I must.. I must.. I must increase my butt!

Did my first gym weights session on my sadly non-existent butt today! Will be doing this every second day I think to try and strengthen my glutes and protect my piriformis so that I can get back into marathon training asap; I focused mostly on glutes and hammies, but through squats my quads had a nice little workout too. 

So forty minutes of steady elliptical, HR around 150-160, and then the weights and things. We've an adductor/abductor machine that was great for working side-of-bum, and the combo hip machine wotsit was handy too - I used it as resistance pushing my leg out to the side, if you see what I mean, and it was working the same parts as the physio exercise I got yesterday. So I did two repeats of a circuit of seven machines / exercises, and whacked my physio ones in there too. 

The piriformis didn't hurt at all during the workout which was great as I was paying close attention to how it felt to avoid hurting it, but it was fine. I rode to the gym and afterwards to the cafe for breakfast, and this afternoon I'm going to go out on the trails for a long ride, maybe two hours or so. Once I fix that spare tube, of course!