Achilles twinges?

Friday 31/3/06; Have noticed twinges of soreness on the back of my ankle a few times in the last 2-3 weeks. This week its getting to the stage where I am noticing it in the morning when I wake up. Had a look in my sports injury book today, and I have self-diagnosed myself with possible achilles tendonitis...

Hopefully I am wrong, but as a precaution I intend icing the ankle, and hope to stop running for a few weeks. Plan being to get my mountainbike operational again and maybe do some swimming and avoid running for awhile. Just had a look on the net which suggests that calves exercises to strengthen the gastrocnemius and soleus is a free (no costs) way of combating achilles soreness...If the calves are strong less strain on the achilles....So will have to start doing calves exercises regularly... Still plan to attack the Bridges 10km "all systems go", but plan to avoid running much after that for at least 2-4 weeks...

ATTACK 10km REPs session III and easy run.

Thursday 30/3/06
PM Reffed a couple of basketball games. Took it easy didn't run any harder than necessary, used it as a rather long recovery session...

AM; Ran excellent 10km reps sessio with the total time being 40min 53 + rests. Heart rates 177-192... Left early this morning to try getting to the track by 7am to beat the heat a bit. Ideal time is 6am or even 5am, but 7am was at least better than the 9-10am sessions I have been doing lately...My 4th rep I think I hammered the finish a bit too much, and when I got a 192 Heart rate I decided it was time to get the shirt off (to keep the body temperature down, and slow things down a touch. This proved to be I think the way to go, especially as my legs felt like lead balloons on the last 2 reps. Feel like I really worked hard on this session and attacked it in a sustained manner throughout. Easily the best reps I have done this year. I was within striking range of my PB for this session (which is 39min 58, I did this in April 2003), but just could not quite hold onto the required times after the first few reps..If I keep improving like today chances are my 41min PB for 10km race will be breakable... Improved almost 2 minutes on the last time I did this session in February this year(10/2/06 to be exact) So it was tough but extremely happy with this one...

Wednesday 29/3/06 Ran an easy 6km or so, in 33min, with a little 1km surge in the middle of it. Used the Hull Park course...
Just trying to "clear away any fatigue cobwebs" from the 5km Ladder yesterday...

5km ladder II breaks through!

Tuesday 28/3/06; Ran 5km Ladder in 18min 43 which is 39 seconds quicker than what I did on 9/3/06 for the same session. Times for reps were; 30,1.18,2.20, 3.13,3.54,3.14, 2.17,1.20,34. Heart rates for the end of each rep, started off at 159-180, and then stayed in the 180-189 range. Worked hard at it, and very happy with the session. Good to get another Ladder session done, and felt like I was running very well. Average speed for the session is about 3.44 per km.

Monday 27/3/06 spent about 30 minutes walking briskly around the city...

Melbourne Commonwealth Games trip

Sunday 19th March-Saturday 25th March; Caught a plane to Melbourne at 2240hrs on 19/3/06. Returned at 1430 on 25/3/06. Was extremely short on money, ended up being a grind to get through the week...Not my ideal trip. Still it was very special to be there at the 20km and 50km walks seeing Australia dominate and catching up with a few athletes (or past athletes? in Graham W. and Daniel L. who I used to race/train with) I know in Melbourne. Deakes was very dominant winning in 1.19 and 3.42. Got my Deakes shirt as did my Fiancee KL who was there with me by my side for this adventure...Good to see Chris Erickson get a medal with a 3.58 in the 50km and a shame about Cousins being DQed. Adams and Tallent completed the 1-2-3 for Australia in the 20km Walk. Saw Jane and Nat Saville,plus Cheryl Webb after their 1-2-3 in the Womens 20km walk.
Here is me (and Kathryn, but she doesnt want to be on the net) with the 50k walk race of the commonwealth games going on behind me...;


Planning to do a page with lots of photos @
HERE
if I get time...
Being at the MCG with 80,000 or so others on Tuesday and Friday nights was special too! Nice to see some of Kylie Wheelers silver medal performance in the Heptathlon...live...Also got the chance to conratulate her in person when I saw her walking along the street on Friday...Saw Womens 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m live (Sarah Jamieson,Benita Johnson, Elousie Wellings).
Very happy to see Sarah get a well deserved medal in the 1500m where I thought she got boxed out of it by the English and Welsh athlete. I think Sarah should have won the 1500m, and she could be the next big thing in the 5000m by Beijing???

Men's pole vault was good as was the Women's Long Jump, and the Men's Hammer Throw... which we saw live...Also saw Graham "Watto" (Michael's (who I went to school with) little brother) and his wife at the "G" on FRiday night....When we were not at the MCG we were watching all the action on TV back at the Hotel...so very exciting week...incredible performance by Australia in so many events!

Saw Craig Mottrams 1500m heat where he won in 3.38,closely followed by eventual medallist Craig Fountain (a USA based Australian?). The heat by Mottram run suggests he probably would have won if not for the fall in the final. Watched the Mens 3000m steeple which included Martin Dent who featured in last years Sydney City to Surf and is a COOL RUNNER...

Oh yeah training...well...um...I spent well over 9 hours walking around the Melbourne city sometimes slow with 13kg AND 7kg packs to carry, sometimes fast with small 7kg pack...

Mixed-up-Backwards Triathlon Session;
Also did a crosstraining triathlon type session on Tuesday 21/3/06 ; Cycled 15km for 35minutes on exercise bike at the Hotel Gym, with the first 4km being at higher intensity with heart rates of 140-160...then settled down to mainly 140's...Then a 5minute stretching break followed by a slow 38minute run to the famous "Tan" track in the Royal Botanic Gardens and then back to my Hotel, with a few opportunities to play "beat the traffic" along St Kilda Rd...Then a 5 minute stretching break followed by about 15 minutes or more of swimming in the Hotel pool. The pool was a heated outdoor saltwater pool and I loved it. Wish I could have stayed at that Hotel all week, cos I would have used the pool a lot more...so just over 80minutes for my "mixed-up-backwards TRIathlon session"....felt good and my resting heart rate was 44 the next morning which is my best so far this year... if we had the money to stay there all week and a little more for food and transport I may have maintained the gains I made that day...but it wasn't to be...

9km run through Docklands and along the Yarra
Thursday 23/3/06 PM; Ran 9km in 55minutes 01. Heart rate 135. The first 20minutes I spent climbing over the Collins street overpass road and exploring the Docklands 2km walk circuit that they used for the 50km walk the next day (and also for the 20km walk on Monday)...then headed over the Yarra River and followed the River on the Eastern side all the way to Flinders Street Station bridge. Along the way I ran past the weightlifting and boxing venues where I could almost??? hear Daryl Eastlake inside...well maybe... past some Formula 1 stuff threaded through a neverending crowd of people at the cafes etc, and crossed a few busy roads, playing beat the traffic again...Took a short break at a big screen to watch Patrick Johnson in the 200m and went back to Hotel number two for the week.

Basketball umpiring good and bad nights

Wednesday 15/3/06 Umpired 3 games of basketball, which is another 2 hours or so of run,walk,sprint etc. Just like doing an easy fartlek session. Was very tired as I was up at 0500 that morning to help KL with getting ready for house inspection (which we passed! wuhoo!). Had a shocker of a night and made several bad or incorrect calls. Copped a bit of hassle from some of the players, which was partly my fault because of some poor decisions by me, but also because perhaps they are not used to having their fouls called? Some of the other refs are maybe a little laisez faire? in calling fouls. Just had to put the head down and maintain control of games keep things ticking over. Not heaps of hard running really, a bit more cruisy than Saturday.

Thursday 16/3/06 Umpired another 3 basketball games. A little bit of a twinge in hamstring and knee sore as usual, but had a good night this time no major problems...

Railway track and Darling Scarp exploration

Tuesday 14/3/06 Ran/walked (very fartlekish) for 2hrs 2min covering about 12km horizontal distance? Heart rate 126. Some very significant elevation changes (like 6-inch) which I walked. Still a bit leg weary from the weekend.

The first 5km I did with Daniel again. We did it in about 27-29 minutes, following the old railway track path from Pechey Rd in the opposite direction to last time. Seemed to lose the track near Great Eastern Highway and ended up running on various hilly streets for awhile which was very disconcerting and not conducive to good rhythm. Then Daniel called it a day, and I continued with my DMH HYDRA along the old railway track in an easterly? direction. Really enjoyed running on this surface... Some interesting scenery as I worked my way up the valleys and gullies towards the foot of the Darling Scarp which rose up very abruptly and suddenly like a small mountain. Turned left off the railway track to follow a large path that tracked some powerlines. From here on I did a lot of slow walking up steep ascents and descents for most of the next 60minutes, with some slow running here and there...Took a detour up an extremely steep track to some sort of signal tower or something. The view to the plain below was simply awesome! Felt like I was in an aircraft. Could see the Perth Airport and the Perth CBD well below in the distance. Also had a good look to the north to try and figure out where Great Eastern Highway was (which I spotted) and how I was going to find my way back to Pechey Rd which was not visible as obscured by another hill. It was tough going from there with lots of rolling ascents and descents, but eventually I recognised the old railway track Daniel and I had run down well over an hour ago and followed it back for 5-10minutes to Pechey Rd. Another exciting adventure. Wuhoo. Needless to say it took a lot out of me, and at least this time I had 1.6 litres of Powerade, carboshotz, and just over a litre of water. So was well equipped to hydrate properly.
Can't wait for the next time I go bush, maybe I should try and fit in the Darlington Race this weekend (which I suspect will be on some of the track I ran on this time.) before I head for Melbourne to watch the Commonwealth Games.

A new week starts with a 4000m run.

Monday 13/3/06 AM; Ran 4000m at Belmont track in 18min 09 Heart rate 174 at end. No sustained sprint finish so could have shaved a few seconds off it. Low heart rate for a time trial, but like yesterday I am still very leg weary and my left calf and left knee are both a bit stiff and sore...Started ok with a 1.39 for the first 400m, but was just too sluggish/leg weary and was struggling to run under 1.50 per lap... However I still think it was worthwhile to run some 4.20-4.40 per km stuff instead of the usual slow stuff, and I did not feel up to doing a reps session this morning.
So a good one to kick off the week with...

Stepping things up a little...88km this week

Sunday 12/3/06 Ran 12.6km crosscountry race at John Forrest with the WA Marathon Club. My wristwatch time said 1hr 20 minutes 57 seconds. Heart rate at end was 156 which is rather low!!! for a race. I slept in on the morning of the race and drove like a maniac to get there, and then by the time I got organized, I ended up starting at the handicap of 16min 11 instead of the 20min 11 I was listed to begin at...

I was just too! leg weary from the previous day, and decided to take it easy and just enjoy the scenery, experience of running through the bush, treat it as more of a training run. Set one other goal which I achieved which was to run up "old faithful" or "Faithfulls hill" without walking. I forgot to check heart rate at the top but I reckon I would have been well into the 180's by the top...Ran as slow as possible to conserve energy and keep heart rate down enough to get to the top, but every time I felt like walking I just gave myself an ORDER mentally to keep going! Nursed a lot of calf soreness all the way also, especially on the bitumen sections...Knee absolutely hated the down hill and I had very little in the tank to climb the hills with sustained intensity, so these are some of the reasons for me going almost 23 minutes slower than I did last year when I ran 58 minutes 17.
Saw EPI there after he did pretty well to pick up a 2nd place.

My other reason for wanting to do this race was that it traverses the tracks KL and I have done a lot of hiking on, so I was keen to familiarize myself with where the race course is in relation to where we hike. Some awesome views of the city down below on the plain below the Darling Scarp here...Enjoyed the experience and did what I wanted to do.

Including my estimates for the basketball umpiring I did this week (7 games!), i reckon I have roughly run about 88km this week. Hit the 8 hours of training mark for this week, which is the first time this year I think. Plus am doing some higher intensity work now, so reasonably happy with what I did this week...A good weeks training...

Saturday 11/3/06 AMish; Umpired 4 games of basketball, and the last 2 involved a lot of hard running "suicides" style...was pretty tired after that...The 4th game was one of the highest standards of games I have umpired as yet. Skilled players and very fast ball movement and court coverage. On almost every change of possession (which was very quick!), I was sprinting desperately for the baseline trying to get there in time to have good position to see any fouls or violations. Enjoyed it a lot, but was pretty tired by the end.

PM; Ran 6.75km in 35min 27 (HR-162) with KL (my fiancee) riding her mountainbike alongside, it was a good workout for both of us where we are at. When she speeded up I had to spurt stride it out at about 70-85% to stay with her which made this session pretty close to a time trial...Afterwards my left knee and both calves were a little sore...and I was pretty tired! Course was one we have both done before around Altone Golf Course. I improved my run time by almost 6 minutes, and she improved her bike time by about 3 minutes....So pretty happy with this session. I had a bit left and could have finished off stronger but decided to just cruise over the line at the pace I had maintained for the majority of the way...

5km ladder at Belmont.

Thursday 9/3/06; AM;Ran a 5km "Ladder" (reps) at Belmont. Total time 19min 22. Times for each rep were; 32,1.20,2.22,3.17, and 4.14, (up the ladder) 3.25,2.19,1.18, and 31 (down the ladder). Took 3min rests btween the the first two reps and the last 2 reps, and 6minute rests between all the other reps.

Getting pretty hot while I was out there so i needed long rest periods and lots of drinks to keeep the body temperature at levels I could cope with?.....or maybe I'm just soft/unfit...but I needed those 6 minute rest breaks...found this session very demanding (like most ladder type reps sessions...)...

Pretty happy with it though especially the fact that I negative splitted on the last 3 reps on the way "down the ladder"...

PM; umpired 2 basketball games (80 minutes)

Wednesday 8/3/06; umpired one basketball game for 40 minutes.

Trying to hold on...

Monday 6/3/06;AM; Ran a solid 8km in 41minutes 51 with Daniel A. in John Forrest again. First 3km was 14.55 and by then we had slowed up a bit so I estimate a sub 4.30 for the first 1km maybe even sub 4...Good hitout...but apart from early on pretty cruisy for me, heart rates between 144 to 130 to 120 mostly?

PM; Ran 4km in 24.08 Heart rate 150 sweating out the "glue" from junky candles/incense that had clogged up my head and given me a headache while at a relatives house...Geeee I hate those things....
Negative split was 12.34/11.34...I'm trying to hang in there as I starting to struggle and worry a bit about a lot of things...hoping God will continue to provide as he amazingly has especially in the last month or two....

Sunday 5/3/06 AM; Leisurely hiking with KL in John Forrest on our usual course to waterfall and back, was lovely to get out there especially since its been awhile since we'have been there...Saw Kangaroos for second day in a row....

PM; Also did another short evening walk with KL around the lake that night, and then with her encouragement did 200 Ab-Crunches for the first time in over a month.
Too hot and had too tough a day, just did not feel like racing the Twilight 5km at all, disappointed though cos deep down I really wanted to see if my Thursday reps would translate into a serious attack on my 5km PB.

Saturday 4/3/06; Ran and walked about 14km to Whiteman Park and back taking just over 2 hours in the hot conditions with barely enough little gatorade with me. Some interesting sights along the way.

Friday 3/3/06 Ran 8km at night... 53 minutes 37.

4x1km reps I assault @ Gerry Archer

Thursday 2/3/06 AM; Ran 4x1km reps with 5 minute rests @ Gerry Archer again. (3.40!/3.57/4.03/3.52...heart rates; 174/183/180/192!) Average time=3.53.37, which is my second best effort ever for this session and closing in on my PB(3.52.11 average)...

Conditions were very nice, one of the coolest mornings for a long time...a little bit of wind but not much... I could really feel the lactic acid build-up/fatigue, felt like I was pushing through a lot of barriers, a good! session. RPE would have to be a 9 again. Felt good on the first one, went out strongly with first 400m in 1.20. I think the 400's I did yesterday helped, especially with getting the 3.40 for the first rep. Went "warp nine/UTG/pedal to the metal" for the last 200m of the final rep, to make sure I had a decent show of going sub 3.55, and scorched the last 100m in 16 seconds, which is why I felt like death incarnate several times over and had my first heart rate in the 190's for 2006 at the end...

This session gives me hope that I may be able to threaten my 5km PB (21.04) this weekend, if I do all the right things in the next few days...see what happens....

Thursday 2/3/06 PM; Umpired basketball for 2 hours...

5x400m reps at Gerry Archer

Wednesday 1/3/06; AM; Ran 5x400m reps at Gerry Archer Athletic Track in Belmont. (1.15/1.15/1.25/1.23/1.25)
Heart rates were 174,177,186,183,186. The last 400m I was pretty much seeing stars in the last 30metres, so RPE (rating of percieved exertion would have to be at least a 9/10... Used 3min 30 active recovery (slow jogging) rests, which is probably a rather long rest time for reps this short, but I needed it. A little annoyed I have not trained in the first two days this week, but I had some other things which take priority (family/fiancee etc) in this case. Don't think I'll lose much ground at all as long as I "bounce back hard" for the remainder of this week, as the work I have done in recent weeks, will hold true for me...so its "back to the salt mines..." Very short of money now, desparate to get some work soon...