painful recovery followed by sickness biscuitlinks

Saturday 11th July Ran 2 miles in 15min 49 HR 165. Mostly to try and help me feel better after getting very sick with the flu in the last three days. Nose is like a dripping tap today.

Had a song called Jet Blue from Swedish soft metal legends JET CIRCUS appear in my mind for no particular reason while running today. Interesting since the last time I heard that song was either about 6 months-several years ago! Anyhow the lyric that kept playing in my head was;
jet, jet blue, we're a fighter and you can be too, jet , jet blue...Not sure if all the words are correct as the swedish influenced english not always easy to understand...

Anyway here is a link to an mp3 audio file sample HERE, I found on the Jet Circus myspace page, although most of my readers probably don't care in the slightest... I still have my 1991? ***cassette tape*** of their album STEP ON IT, with the blue cover, pretty much a collectors item now...Have to get the new album Hypersonic some time, maybe do a Colin Francis (see WA Marathon club current newsletter) go run the Stockholm Marathon and get some Jet Circus music while there, nahhh, when will I have money for that sort of stuff, easier to get it through Soundmass...
Anyhow here is the most well known song (very popular on Sonshines solid rock program on the radio in the early 1990's, used to get requested by a lot of people) for Jet Circus (but its a bit different to the rest of the songs) called Victory Dance which shows their quirky cut sick soft metal attitude...And just learnt something new they were also endorsed by Harley Davidson motorcycles too wow didnt know that, do now...A bit like Tourniquet having a deal with Quiksilver at one stage...

First few days this week I was in a lot of pain with very sore quads, struggled to get down the stairs at work Monday night, and still was painful sitting down and getting up on Tuesday...
Monday I was a cripple, so probably about the sorest ever I have been after a marathon...The concrete paths in Applecross and a few other parts of the course, and mostly my lack of training made sure I paid for it. Knees also very sore this week. Running not an option on Monday, and Tuesday not very attractive either. Wednesday I was too busy with work and trying to finalise home loan application related stuff (thats probably going to be a familiar theme in the coming weeks,months, years ???) etc etc. and starting to feel sick. By Thursday I was having dizzy spells and took the day off meter reading. By Friday I felt pretty bad, and by Saturday (today) It was time to make the tissue box my constant companion.

Trying to eat lots and get plenty of fruit and veges, honey etc. Vitamin C of course is the way to go...Found some honey at the shop that has lemon in it, so been going after that...
Needless to say intervals are not an option, and not very motivated to do much else but felt slightly better after the 2 mile run on the oval this morning... Plus it keeps my streak of weeks with some training done going since November 2008. Sure I still am having a lot of run-less days, but at least in the yearly plan there are no NIL training weeks so far in 2009, and I am up to week 28 this week. So why is it that I am doing worse than last year when I have trained slightly more this year. Well its basically due to
1. stress and loss of conditioning related to our house move this year and trying to juggle both my jobs and family, plus trying to get the home loan on the board this year...
2. My weight ballooning from about 75kg to the 82kg mark mostly due to reduction in meter reading hours, and over-eating perhaps, and very messy eating and sleeping routines...
3. The hammy/hip area going bad on me, the precious time and money spent on getting Chiropractic treatment, The lack of consistent long runs for too longs as a result.
4. Too much stress and hassles, lack of sleep etc to deal with in the last few days before races...

That happens when you work a day job, then go to night job until 1am or later (5am a few times too), then try to repeat the process, and throw in a 2 year old who wakes up at 6.30 am, plus races/training groups that start at 6-8am etc, and finding a good routine of eating, sleeping and showering becomes a challenge some days, butt hey its all for the greater good I keep telling myself, even if paying rent seems to be getting harder.

So whats the solution in the short term; I think its try and shift my night job finish times to be midnight some nights (especially friday, so there is more chance of me making it to the hills group on saturdays), and do a lot more meter reading work, plus train a whole lot more.
Ive also got Tuesdays off from the night job, so plan on trying to make it to the Perry lakes intervals again some time, if things settle for us financially a bit...Its a long 2 hour drive return trip (even longer than going to Hills group), but its a chance to spice up the training with some variety, and run with some of the best runners in Perth at a lovely location with an excellent leader in JK. Won't be going there weekly as its such a massive exercise to get there and back, and I prefer to do most of my intervals stuff alone...So heres hoping things progress rather than slide downwards, as my racing times have in the last few weeks...Pretty disappointed with my Perth Half and marathon times, but just nice to get through them and lap up the atmosphere of racing with some wonderful people...

Be nice if we make some big progress on the whole first home buyers thing though... So God willing the second half of 2009 will be better, and I can race some much better times, and hopefully the knees, ankle and hammy behave themselves.

Some of the excellent links on
http://biscuitmanruns.blogspot.com/
include;

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm


http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/4/4_1/96.shtml

and

http://running.top21sites.com/index.php?method=pv&cat=&start=1