12 months in a leaky boat

Well I must say I am extremely down in the dumps right now in terms of running. Most other things in my life seem to be going pretty well but the running is in a dead end and has been for quite some time.

The last 12 months have just been an absolute horror stretch. Here is how it has looked.

May 2011 - Ran a PB for the half marathon and was in pretty good form after working my way back from an injury from 2010.

June-July 2011 - Began house renovations which took my weekends away. The effect on my running was huge as I would struggle to fit in any runs on weekends. Weight began to pile on as often on weekends it became convenient to eat take away.

August-September 2011 - Began training in a different group. Although the quality was far greater and the training was more intense, I had issues adjusting to this. In particular I struggled to adapt to the longer warm ups/warm downs that we were doing and most of the time I would be very sore the next day, unable to manage an easy run.
I persevered thinking that I would get used to it before realising that I was not fit enough and I needed to build my weekly kms up a bit more to survive the sessions.

October-November 2011 - After realising that I was not quite fit enough to be doing the full Tuesday & Thursday sessions that everyone else was doing, I decided to not do any Tues/Thurs sessions for a month or two and just work at building up my base. Sadly my weight ballooned out to 78kg.

December 2011-January 2012 - Began to do some speed work again and continued to build the base. As always with a new year I set some big goals but did not publicly advertise them for once which is the opposite to what I have done in past years. Things began to move alone quite well although an unusual neck injury did put me out for a week.

Febuary-March 2012 - Although I was injury free and everything was going ok, I had some major workplace stresses and a few other personal issues which took me away from running and caused me to miss several important sessions. I went an entire month without any speed work. It was frustrating but obviously there are things that are more important than running.

April 2012 - Momentun really begins to build. I am feeling very positive after finishing the month with 350km. The weight came down to 73kg and at this stage I could finally see some light at the end of this very long tunnel.

May 2012 - Start the month on a high then one Thursday night early in the month, I am on my way to training and I have a bike accident. I cut my hand in several places and although there is no initial pain anywhere else, later that night I realise that I have some soreness around my ribs. I dont think much of it and go for a run the next day but stop after an unusual feeling at around the 1km mark. I tried again 2 days later and managed 3km before a far worse soreness set it. I get home and my movements are limited and I realise I have a major problem. Initially I am convinced I have broken ribs so I go off to the doctors for some x-rays. I explain the situation to the doctor who says I dont need x-rays but I am looking at 2-6 weeks on the sidelines.

So here is the situation. Its May 2012, I havent done a race all year. I am back to 77kg. My running has gone nowhere for 12 months despite a lot of time and effort.

If I had some running related injuries then I wouldn't mind so much but the fact that these injuries have been totally unrelated to running makes things even more frustrating. There must be someone up there who just does not want me to run any PB's!!!

Anyway I will soldier on one day...

Its not been 2 weeks since the bike accident and I am hoping to do some sort of jog within the next week or so.

Bike accident!!!

Well, just as things were really heading in the right direction, have a guess what happens?

I was on my way to training on Thursday night and without going into all the gory details, I had my first bike accident since beginning cylcing again 3 years ago. No real damage but I cut three fingers severely and have a few other buises here and there. It has stopped me running for a few days as I have some internal pain that seems to be made worse when I run so I will try to do some sort of run tomorrow and hope for the best.

So thats how it is right now, this week is going to finish with no more than about 50kms. Hope to build the kms up again next week.

Let's not get too excited

Well its a funny situation I find myself in. The last 3 weeks have been great. I have really began to build some great momentum however I haven't done a race all year and running is simply taking up less and less of my attention as I have a stack of other issues going on in my life that are way more important. The good thing is that I have managed to do 100km 2 out of the last 3 weeks despite being busy with loads of other stuff. Although it feels great to have hit the ton and to have finally knocked out my first 100km weeks for the year, I have been in this situation before and I know all too well that 100km per week is useless if you don't do it consistently so when I have done 100km per week for 10 weeks in a row, then I will start to get excited. My weight is at 73kg which is still way too high. The plan over the next few weeks will just be to maintain the consistency and possibly build slowly on my current mileage of 100km per week. Also I will be trying to do 2 speed sessions per week which I have done over the last 2 weeks.

Here is how the last 3 weeks have looked:

Week ending 29/4 - 100km

Week ending 22/4 - 70km (pullback week)

Week ending 15/4 - 100km

Building momentum... again!

Well things seem to be going ok again but for how much longer? So often in the past I have got some forward momentum only to have it stalled for one reason or another. Right now I am getting very close to 100km per week. The weight is still at 74kg which is still way too high and my current goal race will be the Traralgon Half Marathon which is 8 weeks away.

Here is how the last 5 weeks have looked.

Week ending 4th March - 55km

Week ending 11th March - 65km

Week ending 18th March - 75km

Week ending 25th March - 85km

Week ending 1st April - 90km

So thats how it is right now. I have built the momentum back up but it is very important that I hold it together and hopefully settle at 100km per week. History will show that its much easier said than done!

On 25th March I was lucky enough to see the Melbourne Ironman. It was a great event and totally inspirational. There is no doubt I would love to have a go at this one day but for the moment I can't devote enough time to even think about it.

Crazy from the heat!

It might be the name of a David Lee Roth record/book but thats exactly how I felt on the weekend that has just gone by. For the first time in many months, I didnt run at all on a Sunday. I just could not be bothered running in the horrible heat and humidity. This summer is turning out to be a real shocker and it is made so much worse when the heat will not go away overnight. I find it much harder to motivate myself getting up at 6am when it is still 24 degrees!

So added to all this is the fact that I was also sick recently and during the last 2 weeks I have done a combined total of about 65km! Here is how it has looked:

Week ending 19th Feb - Unwell most of the week, Did a total of about 40km

Week ending 26th Feb - Unwell at the begining of the week, then slowly eased back into some running before being horrified by the heat/humidity of the weekend. Did a total of 25km.

So thats the story right now folks. Not looking too good. Lets hope for some better weeks to follow. I might have to settle for a very mediocre Geelong half in 7 weeks!

Running Memories

Well with not much happening right now, I thought I might upload a few pics from over the years.



2002 Melbourne Half Marathon. Here is a very large me finishing my first ever half!!!






In 2004 at perhaps my heaviest ever running weight. Finishing the 2004 Half. I was about 90kg in those days.





Running for Sandringham at Lardner Park in 2008





Representing the Magpies at Ballarat in 2011.

Finishing the 2011 GOR Half with a new PB. Sorry folks, your garmin is actually right. The course is short. No PB is genuine on this course.






With Coburg legend Ken Carter on the day he was awarded life membership. I managed to convince the club's committee that he deserved it.





Sri Chinmony Princes Park 30km 2009. I was about 66kg around this time.























Sri Chinmoy Como Landing Half Marathon 2009. My first sub 90!!!!






















Sri Chinmoy Maribyrnong 8km October 2009. My first ever victory in a fun run!!!















2009 Melbourne Marathon. Theres me leading a pack.



















Post-race 2009 MM, chating with Peter Parks.



















A soft age-group win at the Wyndham Rotary fun run in 2011. I got a nice trophy!

A bit all over the place!

Well... 3 weeks gone and 3 very different weeks have been experienced!! Overall I would say things are heading in the right direction and you could say there has been some progress but it has not been quite as balanced as I would have liked.

Yesterday I did my longest run for the year which was 28km and my weight is currently sitting on 73kg. There are 9 weeks until the Geelong Half which is my focus and I believe I still have enough time to get myself in shape for a PB.

So here is how the last 3 weeks have looked.

Week 1 (ending 29/1) - pull back week - 70kms

Week 2 (ending 5/2) - 95kms - biggest week for a very long time

Week 3 (ending 12/2) - Sick, missed 3 days of running. Finished with a total of 60kms for the week.

So there you have it, hasnt been the text book way of building up the kms. I have also still only been doing one speed session per week but that will now change to 2 sessions and there may also be the odd race coming up. My main focus over the next few weeks will be trying to crack the ton and eventually staying on 100km per week which is much easier said than done.