baby steps

I came to the conclusion today, while half way through a lap of Croydon Golf Course, that I was as unfit as I’ve been in the last 7 years. I have been swimming, but that’s really no good. With swimming, I can only really exercise for 30 or 40 minutes at the outside before I go completely spare and give up. Also, there’s been a fair bit of comfort eating during the dark, post-operation days. I’m probably 4kg over where I would be at peak fitness levels.

But at least, I thought to myself, I’m getting back into it. I am running, if you can call it that, and I can safely say a good level of fitness is ahead of me, not just in the past.

Today’s run was 14.25km, including a lap of the golf course, from my house to the mother-in-law’s place in Mooroolbark. It’s the kind of run that, six months ago, I would have done every day of the week, and faster. Today it was my “long run” and I was just happy to get there in one piece. I did get there, and even had a rush of blood with about a kilometre to go.

So, a few good things: a run over an hour, a couple of respectable hills and a good stride-out for a km or so towards the end.

AJH wrote about his goals recently (the memory of the original marathon has faded has it Andrew?). Six months ago, my medium-term goal would have been to run the 50km event at Maroondah Dam. That’s a bit unrealistic now, but the 30km may be possible.

pleasant weekend

Outside it’s been a bit windy, wet and wintry and generally old-school Melbourne (before we got global warming). Despite all that, I’ve managed to have a nice weekend, in terms of exercise.

On Saturday I slipped out for a swim. It was just my usual 1km swim, but it went well enough. I didn’t drown and only got lapped about 20 times by the girl in the next lane wearing a AIS cap.

Afterward I went home and whipped up a lovely batch of scones. No, really. I did, and they were lovely.

Today I had a run, 24km including some Dandenong Creek Trail, some of the foothills of the Dandenongs and some of my favourite running bits between Montrose and Mooroolbark. Lovely.

Now I’m just about to pull out a roast chook from the oven. A nice weekend all round.

Things medical
Perhaps the weekend was the calm before the storm. Tomorrow is my appointment with the specialist. I’m a bit resigned to the whole thing now. I just want the treatment to come quickly so I can get it over with.

The nerves are still there, but I’m not letting it show. Don’t tell anyone.

it’s a circus

It’s been a long day today, what with one thing or another. I was up considerably before the dawn, woken by a couple of youngsters demanding Weetbix and Rice Bubbles. After inhaling a bowl of rice bubbles myself and palming off the kids to their Mum, I headed out for a “long run”.

I say long run with the quote marks, as it wasn’t terribly long. It was 26km in exactly 2 hours, so it was neither long nor fast. I guess the best you can say is that it was restful, as restful as a long run can be. And there’s no point wearing myself out with hard running at present.

When I got home we seem to have acquired another kid – our neighbour’s 5 year old, come to spend the day with us. Fun.

We stuffed around a bit, then headed up to Lilydale to see the circus.

Once they got over their sheer terror at:

1. the dark
2. the noise
3. the smoke machine and
4. the scary man with the top hat

the kids had a lot of fun. So did I.

I’m tired now, but strangely the kids aren’t at all. They’re running around in circles like a miniature tornado.

I seem to say this every Sunday, but I’ll sleep well tonight.

culinary weekend

We – the kids and I – were stuck inside yesterday morning, the kind of morning my Dad would call “spanner weather”. It was cold. V. cold. What’s more, we didn’t have a car, so we were stuck at home.

Thankfully, the pantry and fridge were reasonably well stocked, so my 2 year old and I went on something of a cooking spree. He was a great deal of help, as always. We managed to knock together a big pot of vichyssoise for dinner plus a batch of presentable cup-cakes. They were presentably until he decided we had to make the icing pink. So, a bunch of nice tasting pink cupcakes. Also, sausage rolls for lunch.

Guess what he liked the most? That’s right – the sausage rolls. Oh well.

Running
Today, a long run. In some ways, it was an important one. The taper for Gold Coast should really start this week, meaning runs over 30km need to stop. Guhhhh…. bighting fingers.

Anyway – it was 34km done at 4:30m/km pace. Not bad. It felt good, and comfortable. I’m starting to feel a touch confident about GC, though that will probably change in 24 hours, then change back again.

Now it’s Sunday night and as usual I’m quietly buggered; but in a good way.

Masterchef
Just to complete the culinary theme, Masterchef Australia is on the telly as I write. They chucked out my favourite – Kate – a few weeks ago, which was a downer. I’ve transferred my support to Justine, with Poh as a second. I’m picking them solely on their cooking. No, really.

long weekend

It’s been a pleasant, if cold, long weekend at the JH house. We haven’t done an awful lot, just relaxed.

Yesterday we even managed to palm off the kids on the grandparents and head into town. We saw the John Brack exhibition at Fed Square, then had a civilised lunch. No nuggets, no tantrums. It was very strange, but in a good way. It was almost like the last 4 years hadn’t happened. It did make us think: what did we do with all our spare time back when we were childless and fancy-free?

Anyway, there’s also been a fair bit of running, on my part. I had 11 fast km on Saturday, 13 steady km on Sunday and today I managed 35.5km. That makes close to 60km for the weekend. In the first 8 days of June I’ve run over 150km. That seems a lot.

Thankfully my legs are coping fine. There’s no feeling of heavy legs, my usual sign I’ve over-trained. All good.

Today’s long run was an important one. I realistically only have one more super long run left before tapering finished, so it was important to get value out of this one. It was a good run – paced fairly evenly. (Here it is on mapmyrun.com) It was about 20 seconds per km slower than goal marathon pace. I’m hoping a combination of rest, an improved hydration and fuel strategy, company and race excitement will get me across the line okay.

I was managing 4 minute kms quite comfortably on the flat bits, but the hills slowed me down, particularly in the last 20 minutes. I’m told that won’t be a problem at GC.

I’m a touch tired tonight, but it’s a well-earned fatigue. I think a day off running is called for tomorrow. I’ve earned it.

vomit

I had something of a first today – a vomit during a long run. It wasn’t something I was keen to do, and I’d be perfectly happy if it never happened again.

I’ve vomitted while riding a bike, which was entertaining. From memory, I managed to get most of it on the road, and none stuck in the gears, which was good.

This run was over a familiar course – from home to Lilydale then down to Montrose and then back home. About half way through I stopped at Lilydale Lake for a sip of water and then kept going. Within 5 minutes my stomach was heaving, my head was light and I was sitting down dry – and not so dry – heaving.

The worst thing was that I was minimum 15km from home.

I was tempted at various times to take a short cut to the nearest train station or find a public phone to call for help. Thankfully, neither were particularly plentiful around Montrose.

I made it home in the end, but not in great speed. The whole trip was 33.5km at an average of slightly over 5 minute ks. That included the time spent technicolour yawning. Here it is on mapmyrun.com.

It wasn’t my finest running hour. That being said, it was a good test of mental and physical toughness. I’m just glad I finished.

Food
My pasta maker got a second workout last night. This time we made ravioli with a stuffing of ricotta, lemon zest, thyme and spinach. It took a while to make and the quality control was a bit iffy. They didn’t look all nice and even like the ones you buy in the shops. But they tasted fantastic.

The carb loading didn’t seem to do much good this morning. Perhaps all the ricotta didn’t help. I must say, it didn’t taste so good the second time.

blister

I’ve developed quite an interesting example of the species blisterus superpainicus over the last couple of days. It’s on the right foot, right at the end of the second toe.

I’d post a picture, but some of you might be eating. My wife took one look, lurched backwards and retreated at great speed, muttering something under her breath. I only caught a few phrases: I think I heard the words “something out of Alien” and “enough to turn you gay”, but I might be wrong. Also, I was in the bath at the time, so she might have been referring to almost any part of my anatomy.

Anyway, back to the blisters: I blame the new shoes. They’re bad ‘uns. The padding just doesn’t seem to be there, meaning I have to wear thicker sock than normal. The thick socks bunch up and rub in sweaty conditions, and blisters are the inevitable result. Sigh.

I popped it in the bath tonight, but it’s still not pretty.

Running
8.4km yesterday, including 6 strides. Today I had a long run, starting late in the day from Forest Hill shopping centre and heading home via an extremely tortuous route. It was 32km in 2 hours 23. Ho hum.

I’m not a big fan of starting the long run after lunch-time. It just doesn’t feel right, and I can’t seem to get the fuel right. I normally start my long run 45 minutes to an hour after a breakfast of cereal. That works for me.

wednesday night half marathon

Let me tell you, from the start, that 8 o’clock on a cold dark windy Wednesday night is not the best time to run a half marathon. Also, this course is not really the fastest.

And it probably helps not to be running every day and quite heavy-legged.

Suffice it to say, it wasn’t really the best run last night. At least it’s done, though.

Hungry
I’m still unusually hungry. Breakfast at 6am. It’s now 8:28am and I’m already hungry again.

Bloody worms.