Good news and bad news

The good news is that the Doc thinks my Hammy is fine, and there is no issue with that based on the tests I did with sports doctor today.

The other good news is that I am still a 50/50 chance of running the 2008 Melbourne Marathon, and at this stage I can still work albeit a bit slower than normal.

The bad news is that Doc thinks I ***may*** (unconfirmed only an educated guess at this stage by the Doc, although the signs are that he might be correct)
have stress fractures of the femur... or something else thats been causing me pain this week...If its something else (it seems clear the hamstring is not a problem after all so my guess on that was wrong) I may still be a chance for the Melbourne Marathon, and my enforced "taper" may be a blessing in disguise.

However its looking like I may have a much more serious injury than I first thought, although I am hoping this ends up being just another episode of "drama-king Jon"...
Bone scans next week, should know in 7 days whether my 2008 Melbourne marathon dream is shattered or not...
Emotionally its already a bit hard to take, but I have accepted that if its not Gods will for me to run then I just have to deal with the emotional letdown, try and salvage something from the considerable financial outlay I have already made on this dream of a PB in Melbourne this year, and try and go again another time maybe...

Possibly soon start treatment...
If it is the femur I have to be careful as a full break of this large bone would be rather catastrophic...

So no running for at least a week, pray and think about something else whenever I can for now...see what happens. The dream is still there, but very strong possibility it will be fully shattered in 7 days time... Have to wait and see...

The saga or "case history" so far has been
1-occasional pain under the thigh in the last 3 months I assumed it was a pulled hamstring or something minor and responded to it with icepacks and rest from running for a few days which worked.
2-14th September; I did the tough Eagleview trail for 18km and then added another easy 18km afterwards, and if there was anything suspec Eagleview would have found it I reckon...but only a bit of back soreness, and left knee soreness (since 2000) after that run which I do occasionally get from my back injury I have had since 1996, so didn't think anything unusual...
3-18th Sept had severe soreness after reps on grass. Icepacked it for 30min and that seemed to fix it, assumed it was recurrence of soreness in the last few months due to overstriding in some of the reps, assumed it would clear up. It seemed to be ok the next day.
4-19th September reps on grass pretty sore again icepacked it again. worried a bit.
5-21st september Icepacked it before race (my thigh) as a precaution. Ran freo half marathon (21.1km)(12km? of concrete), it was fine for the first hour or so, got severe soreness at 18km, was tempted to stop, but instead shortened my stride, and the pain went away, and I was running well again by 19km...
On the drive home it got sore again. Started to worry about it a lot...
6-23rd September some icepacking in the last 2 days, felt a bit tender, but seemed to be coming good again, thought I'd have to scale things down if I was to run Melbourne, but still not thinking anything majorly serious...
While doing meter reading work, tried to walk fast to finish off round, experienced significant pain, which came back every time I tried to go fast again, but that was after about 5 hours of no significant pain...
7-23rd September/24th September significant persistant pain not going away, although responding a bit to icepacks and compression bandage,elevation...(RICE; rest,ice,compression,elevation)
8-24th September decided I needed to move into RICER mode (rest,ice,compression,elevation, REFERRAL), as it was starting to become a problem at work, not just for running...
Booked into sports doctor, after initially thinking I'd just try and see a Physio.
9-26th September saw sports doctor, who surprised me by saying hamstring is fine, but makes sense after the tests he did. Booked in for bone scan next week and follow up appointment with sports doctor next Friday 3rd October. Worked on meter reading, being careful not to go too fast in PM, no major problems with that...




DUH DUH and DOUBLE DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-(
But God rules and cares.

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 10 of 12 (22/09/08-28/09/08);

Volume; NIL + 25hrs MR work Sessions;0!
Best RHR; 45!!bpm Sleep; 44.5hrs (6.36hrs per night) *11

OD/LSD; Banned myself from running.
Races/Time trials/LFD; Banned myself from running.
Reps; Banned myself from running.

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-NO.
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-NO
3-Abs done- NO
4-cycling done-NO
5-swim done?-NO
Comments; feels a bit stupid doing this summary when I may not even be running Melbourne Marathon now, but at this stage its still a 30/70 to 50/50 chance, and I must not concede defeat on this just yet, ;cos it aint over 'til its over... so can't rule it out just yet until I have the bone scan, and chat with the sports Doc, my wife, my Dad, pray to God again...Then I can hopefully make a good decison.

So taking a "glass half full" attitude (i.e. that there is a chance I will still be running Melbourne Marathon 42.2km 2008-aka MM08), I can say that I am slowly starting to crank up my hours a little at work and that should help my running, did better on sleep this week, getting over the 6 hours (per night on average) mark for the first time in a long while. So thats a positive especially with 2 weeks to go b4 MM08. Resting heart rate hit 45! this week, and was in that high mid 40's range on most days this week, which confirms my fitness is peaking at the right time for MM08, as those RHR readings are as good as I've had all year, and one of the few times this year I have dipped well under 49bpm.

So what can I say the main training is done, I am in excellent condition, and am ready fitness wise and endurance wise for a serious assault on my marathon PB on October 12th 2008. I'd like to have done a few solid 10k runs "tempo" style session, and maybe one 22k easy long run, plus some more reps work on the track this week, but have to rest now to give possible stress fractures a chance to heal, can't risk (a) destroying any small chance I still have of holding onto my fading MM08 dream, (b) destroying my ability to do my meter reading work, or (c) risk further serious damage which will prolong my rehab time, recovery from injury. As such I have banned myself from running and cycling. Have to buy some new goggles so I can go swimming next week.

I worked Saturday (both jobs, so about an 11hour day of work and a lot! of driving around) and Sunday this week so, was pretty tired on the weekend, and needed rest, plus emotionally drained from trying to deal with all the emotional trauma from the events of this week. So just needed to make the most of the time I had with Kathryn and Jacob, although we did manage to get to Rob O's book launch briefly, and also see James "mosher" C (moving to Japan soon) and my parents. Jacob trying out his vocal cords loudly and often this weekend, starting to add the odd new word to his currently about 5 word vocabulary...:-)

Still waiting for my $500 state election pay to come in (its been 3 weeks now!, time I started asking them "where is it?"), and get as much work as I can done so we have enough money to cover our family holiday to Melbourne and down south, although now I have medical expenses to cover also, and if I can't run Melbourne 42.2km, I am going to have to reconsider what is best for Kathryn,Jacob and I, although I am leaning towards maybe going to Melbourne no matter what, even if I am not running the marathon. So I think than plan from here will be to walk/hike and swim where I can, rest the thigh be very nice to it at work, and elsewhere, no running or cycling, do my abs, and see how the bone scan goes, try and make a good decision...So still looking good, and hopefully I will be able to go after a major goal race on 12th October, if not then build towards something else in a few months time...once I know where I am at with this injury I can work out what to do next, but I think swimming, hiking/walking and walking in water might be the way to go from here...Maybe a light weights program as well...onward and upward (I hope)...

My 6th Freo Half

Sunday 21st September; Ran 21.1km (Freo Half) in 1hr55min.08 HR 183 at end.

Enjoyed catching up with people I know online (Gunner,Coops,Nate & Kate F.) and including some hills group people, and saw about 6 or 7 cool running hats or tops and yelled out the obligatory "GO COOLRUNNER!" and briefly said hello to Pelagie,Mjail, and 20thcenturyBoy afterwards... Made the run a lot more fun...

Ho-hum another pathetic time, although ran well in patches and finished off strongly (and passed a lot of people which was a good feeling although thats not what its about), although I didn't bother to sprint finish today. Disappointed I didn't get into the low 1.40's today, but I felt like I was capable of it, just made a total mess of the race, again!...But I think its a good leadup race for Melbourne still, and my PB is most certainly strongly on the radar for Melbourne Marathon in 3 weeks time. Especially after some of the running I have done in the last week or so.

Reasons for slow time today;
REASON 1; The concrete sections on the new course were very long and this disrupted my rhythm and made my worst knee very sore, even though I ran on the grass whenever I could.

REASON 2; However the biggest problem was yet another episode of "disorganisation plus" (maybe partly due to 2 hours sleep last night and 3 hours Friday night), where
(a) I drank too much H2O before the start, and had to do a 3 minute toilet stop at Cottesloe turnaround, then
(b) realised I had forgotten to tape my nipples as the blood started to trickle, so ducked into my car at the end of the first of 2 laps on this out-and-back course, grabbed some bandaids and my gatorade (had noone to give my drink to out on the course) wasted a few more minutes and kissed goodbye any chance of going sub 1.50 today, and certainly any chance of challenging my 1.41 PB.

REASON 3; Only KM marker on the entire course was at 2km (did 9.03 for the first 2km which was good and reasonably comfortable too (could see Gunner & Coops, Nate for some of this time..., so very hard to tell how one was going anyway...way too much guesswork involved.

Not much rain, some strong winds around but either an alternating tailwind/headwind or crosswinds, and my strength from marathon training meant I knifed through the winds no problem today. Some little inclines more than expected but overall a nice flat course mostly. The bitumen cyclepath sections were good and I was able to run well on those bits...

Although I dont think it slowed me down much today, my recurring "hamstring strain"? has been bad this week, probably cos for once I have got some trackwork done. Have been icepacking it again in the last few days, probably need to start a daily intensive stretching programme, and talk to a physio about strengthening my hamstring muscle in that leg or whatever else as I clearly have something in my biomechanics which has not been right in recent months, and I don't want it to (a) stop me finishing Melbourne Marathon, (b) become an ongoing injury problem that cuases me to breakdown at training all the time, or (c) stops me from training for Melbourne in 3 weeks time (if thats possible)... Felt a twinge at about 18km, so shortened the stride and increased cadence and that seemed to help. Stretched it a lot afterwards, and will icepack tonight again...

My wife said after maybe its a good thing my PB wasn't under threat cos I might have done the hammy real bad trying to get it if I had been close, and IMO its easy to train up for a Half, whereas the Marathon takes a bit more long-term commitment and less opportunities to do them...

Friday 19th September PM;
2x500m at Dianella/Inglewood 1.55,1.50 (2minute rest) HR's 162,171.
Too rushed after long day at work, and family stuff to do that evening, so just jammed in the shortest possible track session. Hammy needed to be icepacked afterwards again for sure..pretty sore this time.

Thursday 18th September PM; (Dianella/Inglewood)
10k reps session 46.16! (4.37 per km) Highest HR 189.
Mostly high but comfortable HR's of around 180-186, so probably could have pushed a bit more on some of them. Fastest 1k 4.12, Slowest 1k 4.57.
Saw the Cattermoles there training...
Faster than the 46.41 I did in February this year see HERE...A tough session this one...

Had the Living Sacrifice & Scott Albert Project track: "Distorted" playing in my head through most of this session as it got dark, floodlights came on for soccer players for my last rep. Finished off with the cut-sick!!! tune by Final Axe; "Vengeance is mine"...(Holy and Divine...) which was playing in my head helping me to stay focused and motivated. Nice to chat briefly with Cattermoles too that was also motivating.

Final Axe etc is on my Retroactive Records sampler CD ("Lightning strikes twice again"), which has been on my car stereo on way to and from work all week, also has cool tracks like Fearful Symmetry, Royal Anguish (black metal combined with classical music ala Believer : Dimensions trilogy), Circle of Dust, and Jimmy Browns (frontman for speedmetal legend Deliverance, still enjoying their live version of "The Call" on the intense live series...) alter ego side band Jupiter VI "Back from Mars"..."I'm back, I'm back from Marrrrrs..." "I Cant rember this, I do remember that"....

Oh yeah I icepacked hammy after this session.

Wednesday 17th September AM;
60min on exercise bike. 35.86km according to dodgy speedo.
250 ab crunches.

Monday 15th September PM;
Ran 6km in 29 min49 (4.58 per km)
HR 183 2km splits 9.04/10.10/10.35
Night run 3 laps of Hull park course.
Leg weary from 36km run the day before...

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 9 (15/09/08-21/09/08);

Volume; 299min + 23hrs MR work Sessions;5
Best RHR; 46!!bpm Sleep; 36.25hrs (5.17hrs per night) *0!

OD/LSD; Well yeah sorta 60min ride.
Races/Time trials/LFD; Yes Freo Half 1hr 55.

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-Yes kinda 60min ride.
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-Yes! finally I have a week where I do that. Yay!
3-Abs done- Yes. 250. good.
4-cycling done-Yes.
5-swim done?-Nope...
Comments; PB in Melbourne looking likely, IF I can keep Hamstring under control.
A few more good runs would be nice too but need to be careful not to flare up the hammy too much. At the moment I think a 3.40-3.50 marathon might be possible, to do better than that I may need to get in a few more good runs in the next 21 days...
Also need to make sure my raceday organisation is much better than most of my races this year or I will struggle to go sub 4 hours, and the 3.25-3.30 will only be possible if I get things right on the day...Getting nervous now... Very happy with what I have been able to do in the last 7 days, while nothing stunning, I have the key sessions in place now.

36km Epic Eagle View and JF run

Sunday 14th September 2008 AD;
AM;
RAN APPROX. 36km* in 4hours 15min 46secs Heart rate 138 at end.

*distance may have been more like 38km or more since Hovea distance sign at Pechey Rd reads 5.9km and I thought it was 5km, so may have done 38km rather than 36km.

(7min 06 per km but slowed down by continual uphill and downhil most of first 18km, breaks totalling about 30minutes in the first 18km, some walking of steeper downhill bits...+ a 5min break at end of 18km, first 18km a fast LSD (long slow distance HR's 120-155) style run verging on LFD (hr'S OVER 160 FOR lONG FAST DISTANCE) at times climbing some of the hills strongly, last 18km under 7min per km a lot of the way but a lot more ODish (overdistance,low intensity HR's 140 or less) in style)

Some splits;
approximately 18km 2hr 2minutes.
approximately 28km 3hrs 15minutes.

I eneded up feeling I needed to sleepin on Saturday morning so was banking on running with Dave near Waroona at the end of his 100miler in the bush there from 7pm, imagine my dismay when I get a phonecall saying his ITB is playing up and he has decided to call it quits for the day...so that left the Godsend of an option on Sunday, which I wasn't feeling too keen about after watching the Wallabies lose to the allblacks and going into blogging world and updating my websites for a few hours, it was 4am, winds were gusting to about 50km/h it looked like rain, and I had only slept 4 hours on the couch, so I decided not to go to bed, but to just go straight out there...

The first 18km was mostly on hilly Eagle View Trail, but started from corner of Pechey Rd and Morrison Rd with Chris and Alli, plus some of their Northern Suburbs Training Group people, and this exciting run began with a run through the railway tunnel, in near pitch darkness, followed by a turn off the John Forrest National Park railway heritage trail at the National Park waterFalls (where Kathryn and I did many walks back in 2005...), onto the Eagle View Trail, which quickly became single file stuff with large bushes either side of trail. Not the easiest place to run and the first of some little inclines appeared...

Then it was up the hill at the big bridge, back onto the Railway Heritage trail until just before Hovea Falls, where we rejoined the Eagle View Trail, and started the first of many climbs up a pretty long hill. At times the trail was a 4wd track with plenty of room, but a lot of the time it was a steep downhill or uphill "kangaroo track with a lot of ankle hazards which made high concentration levels a must to keep running safely. One steep downhill bit, I lost my footing after tripping on a rock, got airborne in a big way and "practiced my freestyle strokes" while enjoying the airtime, but managed to have a pretty stable landing on both feet praise God.... Soon after there was a little creek/brook at the bottom of the steep hill which I was able to do some "long jump" practice to leap over the brook without getting my feet wet, although they were already wet from the puddles in the very long railway tunnel early in the run...

Awesome views and truly running through the forest, in fact the trail was so narrow in places you felt like you were part of the bush. Kookaburras and other birds.
We started with 11 of us, but I ended up running with the back group of 5 or so mostly, and was working pretty hard to stay with their pace. Reckon I was hitting heart rates of 150-170's maybe even higher on some of the climbs. We exited the trail onto Pechey Rd at the same place where my wife Kathryn and I had a few years ago when we got lost hiking in the rain for 3 hours a few years ago. Climbing up the steep hills of Pechey Rd we saw two kangaroos bound across the road, one of which was very large, looked about 6 foot 5 tall at least I reckon.

At the carpark I decided to add an extra 10km by running (at a lower intensity) along the nice easy railway heritage trail out to Hovea Falls and back while the others went home. Was feeling ok, when I got back in 3hrs 15 so decided to go again out to the Bridge to add an extra 8km to give me my longest run since the Perth Marathon in JUly!!!

Ecstatic to get this run done, very important session done for my Melbourne plans in 4 weeks. "Mission accomplished" as far as long runs go for this weekend.

Saturday 13th September Cycled 30min on exercise bike. According to dodgy speedo I did 18.5km and burned 310 calories. HR about 110.

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 8 (08/09/08-14/09/08);

Volume; 285min + 23hrs MR work Sessions;2
Best RHR; 53bpm Sleep; 37.5hrs (5.35hrs per night) *36

OD/LSD; YES!!!!!!!
Races/Time trials/LFD; sorta. some parts of the first 18km,
of my long run were a bit LFD'ish...reckon HR was in 180s-190's
at the top of one hill....
Reps sessions;No... duh

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-Yes!!!!!!!
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-No...
3-Abs done?-
4-cycling done-Yes.
5-swim done?-Nope...
Comments; Extremely happy with my long run! Keeps things on track in that department, and with 4 weeks to go I have done enough to last the distance well, with maybe 1-3 more shorter long runs all that will help my time from here.
The big area to work on now in the next 3-4 weeks is my general fitness which means at least 1 more half marathon race, and some reps, high intensity short running sessions from here what is needed to put me in position to smash my 2004 PB on October 12th...I am starting to look better prepared than last year now after that 36km run... Just have to find the way to get that done...Also need to get more sleep!!! and to keep work,bills family life all ticking along nicely, which is not often easy...

Ride the lightning Week 7

Friday 5th September 2008 AD;
Cycled for 30minutes on new exercise bike ($79 from kmart)
HR 104...
I think I mucked up the distance and calories count (cos 13km and 222 calories cant be right for 20minutes, must have forgot to clear it, maybe thats for 28minutes or 35minutes or something like that), but enjoyed riding the new exercise bike, which has current speed (mostly around 18-21km/h today) function as well, not bad for $79.

Pretty low intensity but got a sweat up. I am trying to ride out a very busy week at work settling back into walk reading again, and some callcentre shifts as usual, plus the state election tomorrow, I am signed up for about a 16 hour shift tomorrow, but the money is good at about $500 for the day, plus the chance to gain experience in a more demanding role which I have not done before...I was keen to get out there earlier in the week, but just haven't been able to do it, frustrating, which means weeks 8-10 are pretty much do or die, now or never time, with the Freo Half (probably not going to do Sydney Half I dont think now...) on Sept 21 the main goal race before Melbourne in just over 5 weeks time...

I feel like I am ready to go hard, just have to somehow get out there, don't think I can do much training this weekend, with state election 7am-11pm saturday and callcentre 9am-5pm Sunday. Just have to ride it out, and build on the Brooking Rd (27.5km very tough hill)run (week 4), and 30k's worth I did at City to Surf last weekend (week 6), in week 8...

Wednesday 3rd September 2008; 200 Ab crunches

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 7 (01/09/08-07/09/08);

Volume; 30min + 23hrs MR work Sessions;1
Best RHR; 50bpm Sleep; 40.25hrs (5.75hrs per night) *29

OD/LSD; No...Duh.
Races/Time trials/LFD; No...duh.
Reps sessions;No... duh

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-No...
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-No...
3-Abs done?- Yes.
4-cycling done-Yes.
5-swim done?-Nope...
Comments; Well, trying to cope with the weekend where I did 23 hours work, and get the meter reading work going again...Pulled out of one callcentre shift which mean't I only did about 54+ hours of work this week, + break times, lots of driving around etc, whereas it could have been a 60-88 hours working week, if I had done more meter reading work and all the callcentre shifts I was offered. But instead I spent a bit of time helping Kathryn out with Jacob in the mornings, especially as I knew I'd be away most of the weekend working...A real struggle of a week, but hung in there and made it Praise God. Unfortunately training was a big casualty of a difficult week. My lack of sleep in recent weeks starting to become a problem again too, with the telltale signs of falling asleep on couch in evening, and micro-sleeps during the day becoming more and more frequent.

Nice to finally get the exercise bike out and to get my Abs done once this week, hopefully a sign of good things to come. Melbourne is only just over 5 weeks away and I am running out of time to get some good sessions done, but that said, Brooking Rd tough 27k,and City to Surf Half +extra hour or so, mean I am reasonably well positioned still...The next 3 weeks are crucial. Weeks 8,9, and 10 I have got to put some good sessions on the board if that sub 3.25 is to be a strong possibility...
Have to find a way to clear any obstacles in the next 3 weeks...