back to work

In a rather spectacular example of poor planning, I’ve managed to end up at work in the few pitiful days between Christmas and the New Year; I’m super happy about that, believe me.

The holiday in Vietnam was certainly an experience, and if you go by the “change is as good as a holiday” theory, it should have been twice as refreshing as your normal laze-on-the-beach variety. It may have been, but any relief from the holiday was promptly ruined by Christmas.

Sigh, christmas.

At least the kids liked it. They (or at least one of them) are at the age when they understand who Santa is (he brings presents) and still believe in it. I’m not sure how they think a big fat man managed to squeeze down our little chimney, eat a couple of biscuits, drink a beer, leave a bunch of presents and then shoot back up.

Anyway, I’m back at work, and after only one morning, the holiday/christmas cheer has gone completely.

Last night I couldn’t sleep with quite strong back pain. I NEVER have back pain, so this was quite a surprise. I took some pain relievers, which reacted quite badly with the alcohol I had earlier in the night, so I had to lay there in pain and feeling sick. Even this morning I couldn’t keep any breakfast down.

Joy.

I did go for an 8km run around this morning, but it was pretty gosh-darn slow.

On the plus side, the trains are empty and there’s no-one much bothering me at work. I might slip out a bit early.

Running
My running is slowly getting back to normal. I ran 45km or thereabouts last week, including an 18km long run on Sunday, and I should manage about the same this week god willing. It’s all slow, low-quality stuff with no hills, but it’s a start. I realised recently it’s been weeks since I felt any knee pain, so that’s a plus.

a fall

I ran into work this morning. Why? I’m not quite sure – because it’s there? It’s definitely not the most interesting of runs – straight along Maroondah Highway for about 27km. (here ’tis on mapmyrun.com)There’s an alternative route along the Eastern freeway bike path, but that’s a bit longer and isn’t terrible well lit – a problem at ungodly hours of the morning.

As it turns out, Maroondah Highway was a problem in the dark too. I was trotting along somewhere near Box Hill when a tree root jumped out from nowhere and tripped me up. I flew about 3 feet then landed elegantly on my hands, forearms, shins and face. I think I was swearing even before I hit the ground.

So, not in a good mood for the rest of the run. It’s a shame really, as I usually enjoy running out of the darkness and into the day.

Running
27.3km this morning. 11km yesterday.

walk to work

Apparently it’s walk to walk day tomorrow. Going by their website, it’s also dodgy animated gif day…

That aside, it sounds like a reasonable idea. The only problem being I live 27km from work. I’d get to work just about in time for lunch and then have to set off home shortly afterwards.

We can’t have that. I may have to speed things up.

So, if you see some (incredibly handsome) guy running along the length of Cantebury Road tomorrow morning, that’ll be me: “walking” to work.

Running
12km last night.

stuck in the middle

The blasted weather forecast seems to have gotten worse since last we spoke. It’s preying on my mind, I tell you.

Luckily, I managed a long run this morning. As promised I rose before the dawn and choofed off towards work. Two hours and 27km later I arrived, dripping but otherwise okay, on the doorstep at work. I started well, then had a bit of a grumpy spell between 6 and 10km – I can’t think why – before picking up again at the 15km mark.

The finish was pleasing, strong and mighty impressive as I elbowed groovy Johnstone Street locals out of the way before striding up Nicholson street at a rate of knots.

Here’s the run on mapmyrun.com.

Only in America
My unlikely-stories-on-the-internet ears pricked up when I heard this:

Woman sat on toilet for two years
US authorities are considering charges in the case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend’s toilet for two years and was stuck to the seat when the boyfriend finally called police.
From the age.com.au.

Yes, you read right.

Sheriff Bryan Whipple, in Ness City, Texas, said it appeared the 35-year-old woman’s skin had grown around the seat.

You know what: I’d like to live in a city where they have a Sheriff and his name is Whipple. Aside from the stuck-to-the-toilet-seat problem, Ness City sounds like a good place.

something more challenging

As promised yesterday, a more challenging run was had this morning. I missed last weekend’s long run, owing to having a head full of cotton wool, so I did it today instead.

It was 26.something kms from home into the office.

I’m not sure I’ll do it again in a hurry. Firstly, it ain’t a really pleasant route and I can’t think of a more interesting route that doesn’t take me way off course. Then there’s the inevitable post-long run staggering about, looking green and hyperventilating. That’s alarming enough at home, where they expect such shenanigans, but it raises eyebrows in the office.

And now, the energy is flagging in a pretty serious manner. A big work lunch at a Greek restaurant in the city hasn’t done much either.

A nice sleep under my desk is looking VERY tempting right now.

Here’s that route on mapmyrun.com for your edification.

Plantar fascinating
I have a theory about this, or rather about why my plantar fascia(s) appeared to fall into disrepair around this time last week. It’s because of the way I’ve been lacing my shoes. It’s the only that’s changed recently.

I learnt this whizz-bang way of doing it from a guy in Athlete’s Foot in Collins Street. It looks great – you kinda loop the laces over and tie it through in ways I couldn’t really be bothered explaining. It ends up much snugger, if that’s a word. In retrospect, too snug.

I’ve gone back to the regular way, the way they teach you when you’re a kid, and everything seems a lot better.

Well, it’s a theory.

camelback is go

I feel I can safely say my experiment with on-board hydration, vis a vis using a Camelback, was a great success.

Incidentally, does one “use” a Camelback or “wear” it? Perhaps “carry”? “Drink”? It’s a tricky one.

Moving on: I had a long-ish run planned for today, and I managed it all-right, thanks to my new friend the camelhump. I went from home down the long hill to Warrandyte, then back again taking the long way home, via Croydon.

I was reasonably happy with the way it went. I took the first, mostly downhill, part slowly and steadily, reasoning correctly that, on an out and back course, what goes down must come up. It certainly did come up, but not too drastically.

I was sweaty, but not chafed and fortunately had a nice bit of plastic to suck on when it all got too much. I detoured through North Croydon and Croydon proper, just to pad out the kilometres a touch.

27km in 2 hours 15. Not fast, by any means, but okay given the level of hills. Here it is on mapmyrun.com.

The camelback has passed the test and will stay. It should open up some new long runs for me, now that I don’t have to worry about water.

Morsey
Welcome Morsey, to the “I hate my job” club.

I just had an idea which, thanks to the nature of blogging, I can publish to a potentially vast audience without any sort of reflection or quality control.

Here it is: we should all swap jobs for the month of January. Morsey: you can come and design websites at my place. I’ll go look after Andrew‘s work and Andrew can be Em for a few weeks.

Sure, I have no idea whatsoever what AJH does, but I’m sure I can improvise for a few weeks. It’s bound to at least be interesting, and if it backfires, at least we’ll look forward to our old jobs at the end of January.

It’s a stroke of genius, I tells you. I’m right, aren’t I?

bilge

The first hour of work today was all bilge, the second wall-to-wall dross and it all went downhill from there.

Yes, it’s been an ordinary day at work. Meeting after meeting after meeting; and not the good sort of meeting, these have been the kind where nothing happens, nothing is agreed and you walk out with more work to do than when you walked in.

Whinge over.

Running
No running to speak of today, which is partly why I’m a touch on the grumpy side. Yesterday I managed a couple of circumferences of the tan, in reasonable style and at some speed. It was quite satisfying in its own way, and gave me a nice little buzz to sustain me through an afternoon of eye-squaring.

If all goes well on the home front, I might schedule a morale-boosting hill session in the dead of night tonight. I hope I don’t run into Mightie pieboy

it’s beginning to look a bit like…

Right now, mid December, is about the best time of the year.

I know I have some work to do before my time off, but I also know it’ll be pretty slack and it won’t go for long. I’ve been going around buying some last minute presents, which is probably better than actually getting them on the day.

The day itself seems like something to look forward to at the moment, despite the fact I know I’ll just feel bloated and vaguely irritated at all the idiotic conversation thrown around between the extended family (most of it coming out of my mouth, of course).

What was it that guy from the Simpsons said “better than the act, better than the aftermath – the moment of anticipation!”. Of course, he was talking about making love to Patti and/or Selma, which just goes to show how wrong you can be.

So what do I want for christmas? About 15 points for my beloved Charlton Athletic, who have suffered miserably in recent months. Oh, and some nice time off with the family. That’ll do.

Goofy theory no 1 for today
(I have many goofy theories)

Early morning runs hurt less.

No, really, it’s true. Also they don’t seem to tire me out quite as much. I think this is because I’m at least 56% asleep and don’t notice what’s going on.

This cuts both ways, though. The catastrophic crash and burn rate rises markedly when I get over 50% sleepiness.

Okay – so let’s revise my goofy theory. I’m nothing if not flexible.

Early morning runs hurt less hurt just as much, but not ’til later.

Running

12k this morning around Croydon and Ringwood. Technically 53k for the week so far, but I want to claim Monday morning’s run as part of last week, which was otherwise pretty low. So I’ll claim 37k and aim to put in around 20 – 25 on Sunday morning.